Greenpeace uplifts Ruataniwha dam site office – returns to sender
Tuesday, September 13: Greenpeace has uplifted the site office of the proposed Ruataniwha Dam and delivered it to the
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council offices in Napier.
Early this morning, a Greenpeace team removed the site office at Tikokino using a hiab truck, depositing it outside the
front doors of the HBRC building, 100 kilometres away in Napier.
It says the council needs to scrap plans for the controversial dam in order to protect local waterways, and it’s helping
the council do so by returning the site office to sender.
“After what’s happened in Havelock North, the council needs to put people’s health before more industrial dairying and
drop the Ruataniwha Dam,” Greenpeace Agriculture Campaigner Genevieve Toop said from Napier.
“Local waterways in Hawke’s Bay are already polluted and under pressure. The dam will compound these problems by driving
more intensive dairy farming.”
The return-to-sender comes just days out from voting papers landing in people’s letterboxes for the upcoming local
elections.
“The new council will be an important deciding factor in whether the dam goes ahead,” said Ms Toop. “Water quality is
expected to be front of mind for many voters.”
Greenpeace is not alone in calling on the regional council to drop the dam. In the last few weeks, over 70,000 emails
have been sent to the councillors asking them to halt the scheme.
“People are putting two and two together, and realising that big irrigation schemes like Ruataniwha increase the risk to
New Zealand’s waterways,” said Ms Toop.
“The council has wasted millions of ratepayer dollars and six years on this dam and they’ve got nothing to show for it
apart from mounting public opposition.
“They need to stop using public money to prop up industrial dairying and instead support ecological farming that looks
after our land, people and water.”
ENDS