The Far North District Council has been granted up to $2 million from the Government's Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia.
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said the immediate solution was to pipe water from a bore on (Te Rarawa's) Sweetwater Farm to Kaitaia, and from Lake Ōmāpere to Kaikohe. And he made it clear that he did not expect iwi politics to get in the way of either project.
It concerned him greatly that there were "issues" regarding the council gaining access to both water sources, and he wished to deliver a "clear message" to Te Rarawa and Ngāpuhi.
"If you can't act in a neighbourly fashion to deliver services to your communities, then it is time for the leaders of these iwi to hang up their egotistical spurs and do something else," he said.
"The communities will be repelled if mana-munching gets in the way of delivering water to Kaitaia and Kaikohe."