8 June 2007

Central Plains Water to meet with City Council on community benefits

Following the Christchurch City Council’s decision yesterday to approve a secondary loan, Central Plains Water Trust will meet with the Council to reassure them that the proposed irrigation scheme will fulfil the community role required by city councillors.

Doug Marsh, Central Plains Water Trust Chairman says, “the decision clears the way for the Trust to progress its applications for water consents.”

The Council’s decision yesterday to approve the loan, from an existing shareholder, follows unanimous approval by the Selwyn District Council for this arrangement. “Legal and regulatory costs have drawn out the process beyond what we had forecast, necessitating the loan,” says Doug Marsh, Central Plains Water Trust chairman.

“This shortfall had the potential to leave the scheme without funds to continue to the next stage of the scheme. Our applications for resources consents are to be heard within a matter of months and to have fallen at the last hurdle would have been tragic for a scheme with such a wide range of community benefits. It would also have put the seed funding provided by the Councils in jeopardy,” he says.

At no stage did the Trust approach either Council for additional funding. “Parties associated with our existing shareholders approached us with the loan proposal. Other parties are more than willing to underwrite the scheme because they see the value of water storage,” he says.

Mr Marsh pointed to the water sharing arrangement between CPW and the Ashburton Community Water Trust for the proposed Rakaia River ‘take’ as an example of how the scheme was working in the interests of the whole community.

“Contrary to the reporting in Thursday’s Press, this is not ‘privatisation of the last allocatable water in the Waimakariri and Rakaia Rivers’. Quite the opposite. What the scheme does is protect this last water take, as the water consents are held by the Central Plains Water Trust on behalf of the community,” Mr Marsh says. “The bottom line is that, whatever happens with the scheme, the water will be used anyway. Other schemes are lining up for it. It’s better to be held in trust for the benefit of the community than to let it dwindle away in a number of smaller, purely commercial schemes,” says Mr Marsh.

“Our scientific studies indicate there is no risk that the level of nitrates in Christchurch city’s drinking water will exceed the New Zealand drinking water standards as a result of the scheme. Christchurch’s drinking water is fed by rainwater and drainage from the lower reaches of the Waimakariri River, outside the scheme’s boundaries.

“The Trust will also advocate and protect the interests of recreational users of facilities such as the storage reservoir, as well as ensuring river takes do not interfere with events such as the Coast to Coast.”

He added that the loan will allow the scheme to continue to develop and present a broad range of evidence at the hearings to support its case. That evidence includes economic analysis showing the following:

- The scheme will be of direct benefit to Christchurch – 70% of the city’s economic activity is generated from the rural sector and Canterbury farmers spend around $750 million every year on goods and services provided by Christchurch businesses.
- It will be one of the largest construction projects ever undertaken in the South Island, with total scheme and on-farm expenditure of more than $680 million.

- The combined direct and indirect output from construction and additional farm activity as a result of the scheme is estimated at around $1 billion per annum.
- It will create more than 2700 jobs (more than 1250 in agriculture and 1450 in processing).
- Community ownership of water rights through the Central Plains Water Trust will give widest regional benefit.

-Ends-

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