Public to discuss irrigation scheme

HBRIC chief executive Andrew Newman

A public meeting to discuss the pros and cons of the proposed Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme will be held in Napier next week.

Hawke's Bay Today is organising the August 6 meeting in a bid to allow readers and members of the public to make up their own minds on the viability of the scheme.

The meeting will feature a panel discussion involving the scheme's promoter, Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company (HBRIC), and lobby group Transparent Hawke's Bay, which has been critical of the project.

The meeting, to be held at Tamatea Intermediate School at 6.30pm on Thursday, August 6, will start with a presentation from HBRIC chief executive Andrew Newman and other HBRIC representatives, followed by a panel discussion, which will include Transparent Hawke's Bay members.

Hawke's Bay Today editor Andrew Austin said the paper was holding the meeting because there was immense interest in the project and a significant amount of ratepayer money was at stake.

"This is potentially one of the largest infrastructure investments seen in Hawke's Bay for decades and I'm delighted Mr Newman and his team have agreed to attend the meeting," he said. "We decided to hold this meeting in Napier because the issue affects us all and we want to give people who don't know much about it the chance to get an understanding of it."

The meeting has been organised as a deadline looms for a decision on whether the publicly funded irrigation project will go ahead. The Hawke's Bay Regional Council has agreed in principle to invest up to $80 million of ratepayer money into the scheme, which would provide irrigation to about 25,000ha of farmland in drought-prone Central Hawke's Bay.

HBRIC has resource consent to build the dam and irrigation network - estimated to cost about $275 million - and has given itself a four-month deadline to sign up farmers to take sufficient water from the scheme to make it financially viable.

The company also needs to finalise corporate and government funding and conclude a land-swap agreement with the Department of Conservation involving part of the site of the proposed dam.