Comment: Reported $6m-plus for capital works incorrect

Ruataniwha Dam site. Photo / Glenn Taylor

There are some big numbers associated with the Ruataniwha water storage scheme and last week we attributed one of them incorrectly.

We reported that Central Hawke's Bay District Council was looking to spend an estimated $6.6 million on capital works needed to bring Ruataniwha dam water to its pumping stations in Otane, Waipawa, Waipukurau and Takapau.

In fact, under a deal currently being negotiated between the council and Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company, the council would not pay anything for the infrastructure to bring the water to the townships but would pay a per cubic metre price for the water it received.

The $6.6 million figure was an estimate from the council of what it may have to spend over the next 11 years to upgrade its water distribution networks in the four urban areas - particularly if there is population growth in the district due to economic growth generated by the dam.

That spending is yet to be locked into the council's long term capital works programme and budgets.

Like the Ruataniwha scheme itself, the council's proposed water take from the scheme, and the cost of taking that water, the numbers are uncertain because nothing is confirmed.

On the water cost for example, while negotiations are ongoing, HBRIC has said the council cannot expect to pay less than other users, who will be charged 26 cents per cu m.

Based on the 2 million cu m the council has suggested it could take initially, that is a gross annual cost of $520,000 for Ruataniwha water.

But offsetting that is the increased rates the council could collect from new water users - domestic and commercial - who it is assumed will be attracted to the district by the dam.

There will be more clarity around the Ruataniwha numbers after March 31, the deadline HBRIC has given itself to finalise funding for the scheme and sign water take contracts for at least 40 million cu m a year - the minimum it needs to get the project off the ground.