Kurow Duntroon Irrigation Company scheme gets funding

The roughly 2000ha scheme runs south of the Waitaki River from Lake Waitaki to Duntroon. Photo / Supplied

The Kurow Duntroon Irrigation Company (KDIC) scheme, more than 50 years old, has received a Crown funding boost.

The state-owned irrigation development funder, Crown Irrigation Investments Ltd, late last week announced $388,000 in matching funding for the roughly 2000ha scheme that runs south of the Waitaki River from Lake Waitaki to Duntroon.

KDIC chairman Geoff Keeling said yesterday he was very appreciative of the funding that would help to finish the background work for a planned $35million scheme that could deliver water to shareholders as soon as spring 2018.

''Once you know what you're going to build, who is going to build it, and where it's going to go, building it is kind of, relatively, easy,'' Mr Keeling said.

The scheme was originally built in 1965 and a ''maximum'' expansion would treble it's 2000ha reach.

Within the scheme's area, about 1700ha was irrigated from mining permits due to expire in 2021, and there was another 1400ha of demand from existing shareholders as well, Mr Keeling said.

''It's not meeting the on-farm requirements of some of our existing shareholders and the most economic way to enhance the scheme up to modern best practice is to grow it, which is what we're proposing to do, and what we have some demand for,'' Mr Keeling said.

''This expansion is not about irrigating land that is unirrigated already - some of it is to do with that - but then we're also ... providing quite good environmental outcomes for those tributary streams. Because there will be quite substantial irrigation removed from those tributary streams, and obviously those farmers will then in turn get more reliable water.''

With the expansion the scheme's over-50 shareholders would increase to an expected 65 shareholders.

In a Crown Irrigation Investments press release, chief executive Murray Gribben said the scheme had an existing resource consent from Environment Canterbury ''and paves the way for considerable economic, agricultural and environmental benefits for the region''.

''Technology has improved enormously since the current infrastructure was planned in the 1960s; today water can be supplied on demand and there is little to no waste. The infrastructure will also have a design-life of more than double the current scheme,'' he said.

In a statement Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy said all decisions by Crown Irrigation Investments were made by ''an experienced, independent board and management team''.

Strict conditions had to be met including sound governance and matched funding.