Wairarapa dam plan dead in the water

March 11, 2016

Press release for immediate release – Wellington Fish & Game

Wellington Fish & Game is supporting calls from independent economist Peter Fraser to shelve the Wairarapa Water Use Project (WWUP) and suggests future investigations must focus on smarter ways to farm and grow the regional economy.

Manager Phil Teal says the latest dairy pay-out announcement is the final nail in the coffin for the large-scale irrigation project which was never compelling from both an environmental and economic standpoint.

“It’s becoming increasingly clear that a prudent approach to growth in the Wairarapa region is required instead of continuing to pour millions of dollars of taxpayer and ratepayer funds into an irrigation scheme, especially when independent analysis clearly rejects its viability.

“The Ruataniwha dam in Hawke’s Bay has cost local ratepayers huge sums – many tens of millions of dollars, and counting – and it’s dubious as to whether a sod will ever be turned on the controversial project.

“The last thing the Wairarapa community needs is to be saddled with significant rates hikes to fund a project that wasn’t even a goer when the dairy pay-out was in the $6/kgMS range. Now, with all indications pointing to low dairy returns being the new normal, the regional council really has no other option than to wisely use this as an off-ramp.”

Mr Teal is calling on WWUP backers – Greater Wellington Regional Council and the Government (through the taxpayer-funded Irrigation Acceleration Fund) – to be fiscally responsible and look at more economically and environmentally sustainable options.

He says rather than waste more rates and taxes on an uneconomic dams, the regional council and Government should be backing future farming initiatives – low-input farming systems.

“These are much better suited to dry areas and are proven to be more profitable than high-input, water-intensive industrial farming operations. Better for farmers and better for the environment; a win-win.”

Wellington Fish & Game has had concerns about WWUP for some time for going well beyond its brief and acting as an irrigation advocate, rather than providing the Wairarapa community and its leaders with balanced, objective information.

“WWUP is supposed to be conducting a feasibility exercise; instead it is acting as a pro-irrigation lobby. The quality of the debate in the community about the merits of irrigation is suffering as a result. Wairarapa residents and local leaders are being promised the world, but WWUP is failing to put in front of them the many downsides to such schemes, not least of which are the huge costs that are inevitably borne by the community and the environmental impacts.”

Mr Teal points out that despite what WWUP will inevitably now try to claim, the project was always predicated on intensive dairy expansion.

“WWUP has always been a dairy-heavy project. Their own figures [see Table in attached file] show an expected doubling of intensive dairying. No other land use could, or can, afford the water.

“It’s time to can the dam idea and concentrate on assisting struggling farmers convert to more profitable and sustainable systems.”

ends

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