Lifestyle block owners and irrigators on the Waimea Plains should have received an information document and survey in February. The survey is seeking expressions of interest in the purchase of shares which will fund Plains water users’ equity contribution to the construction of the proposed Waimea Community Dam.
Waimea Irrigators Limited would like to thank all those people who have sent back their survey forms. The survey is drawing to a close, so if you haven’t returned your survey forms yet please post them back by the end of this week. If you have any questions about the survey please contact Natasha Berkett, Waimea Irrigators Limited Project Manager at Natasha@waterforlife.nz.
Our region has experienced a wetter than usual summer. Despite this, flows in the Wairoa River are beginning to drop. Recordings show the flow in the Wairoa River at the Gorge is now only a few days away from the levels at which the first rationing cuts (20%) would be implemented, if a decision is made not to proceed with the dam.
These cuts will affect all water users who do not have a permit that is affiliated to the dam, and/ or shares in Waimea Irrigators Limited. In a normal year, we would see the current flows in early January, and with no significant rainfall water users would now be facing very severe restrictions.
The Waimea Community Dam is seen as the best long-term (100 years), cost-effective water supply solution to the region’s water supply shortages, which have actually been occurring for many years and will only worsen under the changes soon to be implemented under the Tasman Resource Management Plan.
Other options, and there are many, have been fully considered and discarded as not meeting the multiple objectives that the Dam does – including security of supply for our current and future urban populations, and new minimum flows in the Waimea River that the Tasman District Council must give effect to under the National Policy Statement Freshwater.
Waimea Irrigators Limited is working with both councils in the region to progress the dam. The survey is a critical first step, which will be followed with the issue of a full Product Disclosure Statement and share offer around the middle of this year.