A group that's been formed in Central Hawke's Bay to promote the wider benefits of water storage for the whole region is gaining traction with a newly created website and fast-growing membership.
Called Water Benefits All, the group was the brainchild of about 15 Central Hawke's Bay farmers and service businesspeople, who were frustrated at the polarising arguments about the proposed Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme (RWSS), said group chairman Ian Walker.
A long-time Central Hawke's Bay resident, who was managing director of Vet Service Hawke's Bay for many years, Mr Walker said the group's founding members decided there needed to be a way to get balance in the emotive rhetoric about water storage in the region.
"We were getting frustrated at the divisive arguments and lack of balance in the media and general conversations.
"There has been selective and mischievous use of information about the dam, which has been used as an argument against it and which people have been taking at face value."