Meridian Energy Staff Head To Waitaki Valley

Meridian Energy Staff Head To Waitaki Valley For Summer

About 80,000 people head to the Waitaki Valley for their summer holidays every year and many may wonder what impact Project Aqua will have on their holiday spot.

Project Aqua is a proposed hydro-electric scheme that would run along the south side of the lower Waitaki Valley. It would generate enough low-cost, renewable electricity to power the equivalent of about 375,000 households in an average year and about 250,000 households in a very dry year. A very dry year is a 1-in-20 year event.

“Many of the visitors to the area will have heard about Project Aqua, and may have questions about the impacts,” says Meridian Energy spokesperson, Alan Seay.

“So we will be out and about if people want to ask us questions. We’ll be right there on the spot. We’ll also have a full team on deck at the new Project Aqua Office and Information Centre in Kurow.”

“It’s so important to me that people can access information about Project Aqua that my family are I are heading to the Waitaki area for Christmas so I can be part of the team that is out and about. We plan to call in to camping grounds and spots, holdiay parks and events around the area from Boxing Day through to late-January.

“This project will have impacts on the immediate area, but it’s also part of a New Zealand-wide debate about our country’s growing need for electricity, how to make the best use of available resources and the options for increasing generation. It’s an important issue, and we want to make sure people have easy access to accurate information,” says Mr Seay.

The new Project Aqua Office and Information Centre will have a raft of information including: Self-tour guide and map of proposed Project Aqua area Newsletters Aqua fact sheets A new high-tech simulation showing how the scheme would look between 15 and 20 years after it is built Background video on the proposal Mitigation-related information The latest on wind farm developments by Meridian Energy Information about other Meridian activity

“And because it’s summer, we’ll be helping visitors have a safe and burn-free summer by joining with local radio stations and providing sunscreen and sun visors along with advice about the daily UV index,” concluded Alan Seay.

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