Applications approach $13 million for latest funding round

The Waikato River Authority has this year received one of its biggest funding application totals to date for potential river clean-up projects.
Applications for the funding round closed yesterday with 62 requests for funding, amounting to $12,882,926. The funding round is also notable for the strong showing in iwi and marae applications.

Waikato River Authority Co-Chairs, Hon John Luxton and Roger Pikia say the number and scale of applications indicate both a desire and commitment from the wider community to get in behind the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River and Waipā River.

“With up to $6 million earmarked for distribution by the Authority in this funding round, it is clearly going to be a challenging exercise to decide which projects will go forward. Early indications are that there are many strong and worthwhile projects included in the list of applications,” says Mr Luxton.

“In the lead-up to this funding round the Authority has been pro-active in liaising with iwi groups on potential projects, so it is encouraging to see that approximately a third of the applications, by both number and value, are from iwi connected organisations. Clearly there is an increasing level of capacity and capability from iwi in this area,” says Mr Pikia.

The total value of projects in this year’s funding round is close to $34 million meaning a substantial level of co-funding has been included in applications.
The Authority will be going through its project evaluation process with decisions announced on successful projects at the end of October.

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