Talking Point: Good on council for proposing new dam plan

The site of the abandoned Ruataniwha dam.

My attachment to the site of the abandoned Ruataniwha dam proposal remains just as strong as ever because it is part of our family heritage and l will continue to be vitally interested in anything that happens in that part of the country until l die.

A "school days" friend keeps me posted on the finer details of events and proceedings related to the CHB area.

So, having been made aware of the public meeting held recently in the Waipawa Town Hall to discuss the possibility of resurrecting the dam proposal, albeit in another form and on another stretch of water, l wasn't surprised to read in this newspaper that the CHB District Council has decided to lend support to a group who want to have another go. Good on it!

I have been trying for some time up here in the Tairawhiti (Poverty Bay/East Coast) region to persuade our own Gisborne District Council that a similar proposal for water storage should be a high priority given the looming threat to our pastoral economy through the negative effects of climate change. Our proposal differs from the CHB idea in that we don't intend damming a major river.

The use of any water stored to dramatically increase production volumes from the highly fertile flat land (in your case - the Ruataniwha flats and in ours - the Poverty Bay flats) is where the synergies lie.

Interestingly, our council has only this week announced that it is reviewing plans for looking at water storage proposals after years of claiming the idea had no merit.

Currently, in the LTP, any discussions on new fresh water dam proposals are 30 years away but to their credit, something has changed to influence a rapid rise of that topic on the order paper.

I have learned over time when dealing with local authorities that the elected representatives often exhibit the characteristics of a seasonal worker - "here today and gone tomorrow!", and so you're never quite sure what next week's deliberations will deliver.

During my time in the wilderness, after multiple wasted representations to council on the matter, in order to maintain my sanity, l clung to one of the few biblical "texts"
that l can remember - " God moves in mysterious ways!"

Maybe, this time it will be worth the wait.

I hope it all works out for you guys as well

However, there are lessons to be learned from the abandoned Ruataniwha proposal which l'm sure you will have already noted.

Ironically, they are not related to the technical detail of the idea or even the costings.
They are all about the packaging of the proposal and how it is sold to the public.

In that context, the mistakes made were an inept appreciation of the strategies needed to get the project over the line. You can't afford to make those types of mistakes again but if you make a better job of that part of the exercise this time, l believe your chances of success are pretty good.

Here's why!

a) Although your neighbouring representatives of the HB Regional Council will try a repeat of the successful attempt to can the original dam proposal, this time they should not be allowed to use your political opponents (Forest & Bird) and the Greens to land the fateful blows they did last time. Your latest idea suggests that the new plans will offer a proposal that is much more acceptable to anybody who had doubts about its effect on the environment, particularly if they exclude any aspect related to the polluting affects of dairy or other types of livestock farming.

b) The Government minister who is most likely to have responsibility for delivering Crown support will be the Hon Shane Jones who will do so via grants from the Provincial Growth Fund. You can be thankful that Jones has fended off opposition to this type of proposal from within his own Coalition and already set a precedent with his support of the Waimea Dam proposal in Nelson.

c) l am presuming that your revamped project will be based on efficient use of fresh water to supply irrigated high end crops like apples, kiwifruit etc.
All this leads to the ultimate end game which is the number of new permanent jobs that this development will provide.

There is no question that the success of any new proposal will depend on this aspect more than any other.

I am confident that the designers of the plans are more than capable of getting it right this time.

*Clive Bibby is a fourth-generation member of a CHB farming family which has farmed on the East Coast since 1980. He talks about the project to re-establish native flora as it gets support from local Maori