National Party leader Judith Collins says while no decisions have been made on specific projects, schemes like the Ruataniwha dam would be assessed as part of a proposed water storage initiative. Photo / File
National Party leader Judith Collins says while no decisions have been made on specific projects, schemes like the Ruataniwha dam would be assessed as part of a proposed water storage initiative. Photo / File
A Ruataniwha dam project could be reconsidered as part of a newly proposed water storage National Party initiative.
A National-led Government would aim to safeguard local water storage by establishing a $600 million fund to develop a long-term plan.
The party last week announced the new proposed water storage policy, which would aim to unlock economic potential and safeguard communities against increasing drought.
National Party leader Judith Collins said while no decisions had been made on specific projects, schemes like the Ruataniwha dam would be assessed and could be considered in the future.
"National will support local government to develop the three waters infrastructure, which will include clean water infrastructure and storage," she said.
Collins said a National-led Government would aim to safeguard local water storage by establishing a $600 million fund to develop a long-term plan. Photo / File
Collins said the initiative will help businesses increase productivity and resilience after an ongoing "economic crisis".
"The Ruataniwha dam is certainly something that many people supported here," she said.
"I don't want to speak specifically about Ruataniwha, but I do know we have water storage issues. We need to either take it seriously or we don't - there's no point crying about what's happening if we aren't prepared to actually make some calls on it."
A $330m plan to build the dam was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2018, despite almost $20m of expenditure by Hawke's Bay Regional Council on consents and planning.
Tukituki MP Lawrence Yule said the fund is open to support any irrigation scheme.
"I'm confident Hawke's Bay will get a significant share towards our storage opportunities," he said.
Collins said when done correctly, water storage can be equal parts beneficial to the environment, economy and community.
Minister for the Environment David Parker said the Labour Party are not opposed to good water storage projects.
"We have supported some, particularly for owners of underdeveloped land, which is disproportionately Māori, but we're not going to cross-subsidise hundreds of millions, huge amounts of money for farmers to further irrigate their land," he said.
National Party spokesman for the environment, Scott Simpson, said less than 2 per cent of the water that flows over New Zealand is currently captured.
"About half of this is used in our towns and cities and the other half for irrigation. Our country has water, we're just not using it," he said.
The scheme would the fund within the National Infrastructure Bank with $600m to develop a long-term plan for water storage, develop a National Policy Statement on Water Storage and treat water as a prime strategic resource.
