Power project grants a 'joke'

The funding offered to help people make submissions on Project Aqua is "a joke", the Kurow Aqua Liaison Committee (Kalc) says.

Chairman John Watherston said the lack of central and local government funding was "another nail in the coffin of the ability of groups and individuals to be represented properly".

The Environment Ministry has made $250,000 available to community groups wanting to make submissions on Project Aqua, Meridian Energy's hydro-electric plan for the lower Waitaki River. Up to $20,000 could be given to any one group.

"The funding criteria are indicative of the inability of the Government to take account of the situation as it is in the Waitaki Valley," Mr Watherston said.

"Communities, groups and individuals need to be able to be particularly effective in the process. To do that, they need to be resourced."

Kalc had also been granted $5000 from a $50,000 Waitaki District Council contestable Project Aqua fund for social worker/liaison work. Although it applied for $30,000, he said Kalc's grant was in keeping with others made from the fund. However, he did wonder what the fund's remaining $38,000 would be used for, especially since the council had said it wanted to set aside another $50,000 in the coming financial year.

The group had been given a mandate by the Kurow community to seek the best possible outcome should Project Aqua go ahead. It wanted to ensure the community could live through the construction and that the town would be better afterwards than it was before.

The deadline for Project Aqua submissions is March 12.

Project Aqua

* The $1.2 billion Meridian proposal is the largest hydro-power development plan since the Clyde dam of the early 1980s.

* The Government on Wednesday introduced a bill to set up a body to decide who can and can't use the river for what.

* Opponents say the Government is playing favourites, giving its own company a fast-track route through the Resource Management Act.

- NZPA