Hundreds gather to oppose dam project

Mangatarere is one of five sites on the radar of the Wairarapa Water Use Project as a candidate for an irrigation dam.

Hundreds turned up at a meeting on Tuesday called to oppose any plans for a dam on the Mangatarere River.

Michael Woodcock, chairman of the Dam Free Mangatarere Society, which organised the meeting, said the Carterton Events Centre was packed out.

"It was literally standing room only. It was really pleasing to see that level of interest."

Mangatarere is one of five sites on the radar of the Wairarapa Water Use Project as a candidate for the irrigation dam.

Speakers were Mangatarere landowner Mike Bennett whose property could be seized for the project, Dr Mike Joy, an ecology and environmental scientist, WWUP director Michael Bassett-Foss, and Peter Fraser, an economist with Ropere Consulting.

He said Mr Basset-Foss was politely asked questions and there was no heckling.

Mr Woodcock said the "big question" was about how much the total project would cost and whether farmers would be able to afford it.

"By now WWUP should be able to know what the cost of the proposal is, they should be able to tell people."

Mr Woodcock said Mr Fraser raised the point that New Zealand was not an easy country to build low-cost dams.

After building the dam estimated at $200 million, the cost for farmers to build infrastructure and infrastructure in the region, the price of water would be too expensive, he said.

"After 25 cents a cubic metre, it's pretty much not cost effective for the farmer, it's cheaper to buy feed in."

He said this had been learned from the Ruataniwha Dam proposal.

The issue of the Public Works Act to seize properties was also raised.

The audience was told WWUP could either negotiate with property owners and buy their land at market value, seize properties under the Act or a combination of the two.

Mr Woodcock said Mangatarere property owners and people living below the possible dam site had been left "in limbo".

"If they want to sell their property, they can't. Who is going to buy a property that is possibly going to have 30 million tonnes of water above it?

"What is going to be the true market value even if they do want to sell?"

Questions were also raised about fault lines.

"What does it mean? One, for the dam and two, for the pipes, what is the plan? These are the big questions."

Another issue raised by Mr Fraser was having the ability to get out of the project. "A lot of these projects should have an 'off ramp', where do you get off if it's not looking good?"

Mr Woodcock said the size of the pipes could be 3m in diameter, travelling out in straight lines through properties, whether they were taking water or not. While it wasn't known exactly where the pipes would go, he said a lot of people will be affected.

Mr Woodcock said the society would pose these questions to WWUP and talk to the Ruamahanga Whaitua and Carterton District Council.