ORC to consult on Clutha flow

Clutha River

The Otago Regional Council will consult the public later this week about managing the  Clutha River's flow to ensure the environmental, cultural, economic and recreational needs of the community are met.

To achieve this, the council may have to set minimum flows and water allocation limits for the main stems of the Clutha, Kawarau, and Hawea rivers as part of developing changes to Otago's Water Plan.

Lake level and water allocation limits may also be set for lakes Wakatipu, Wanaka, Hawea, Dunstan and Roxburgh.

Council planning director Tanya Winter acknowledged the  river played an important role in the region in  economic terms and for recreational activity.

"Water is important to people for many different reasons. [We want] to get an understanding of how the community values the Clutha River ... including its source and hydro lakes," she said.

Public consultation will begin in Queenstown tomorrow before the ORC visits  Wanaka, Cromwell, Alexandra, Roxburgh and Balclutha over the next two weeks.The first round of consultations will be aimed at getting feedback from the Central Otago community about what they value about the Clutha River.

The council will then prepare hydrology reports before assessing the impacts of the options on social, economic and cultural values.

• A meeting called by the Upper Clutha Farmers Group for farmers  only was held at the Wanaka Sports Facility at Three Parks yesterday.  Two issues covered were  "the current mismanagement of Lake Hawea and the Clutha River waters resources by the Otago Regional Council and Contact Energy and how it affects you" and "preparing for farming under a Labour, New Zealand First, Green Party government."

About 40 farmers attended the meeting convened by Hawea Flat dairy farmer Paul Kane, from which the media and public were excluded. Mr Kane declined to be interviewed by the Otago Daily Times after the meeting.