The HB Regional Council held a publicly excluded meeting on Wednesday 29 January to discuss the shadowy ‘Heretaunga Water Storage Project’ (Agenda Item 12).

Wise Water Use HB are calling for full transparency about what water storage project Council is seeking to advance with ratepayer money.

“Holding publicly excluded meetings to discuss water storage projects funded by local ratepayers and taxpayers is redolent of the behaviour of previous councils intent on promoting the Ruataniwha Dam v.1,” said spokesperson Dr Trevor Le Lievre, adding: the zombie Ruataniwha Dam has cost the public $30 million without a sod of earth being turned, and counting – this looks like history repeating.”

“There are so many questions about this ‘water storage project’:

• Are Council looking to promote a dam in the upper Ngaruroro River catchment, as has previously been discussed, which would affect the river’s ecosystem all the way along the catchment to Clive?

• How advanced is this proposed project, how much public money has been spent to date, and where is the money coming from to further advance the project?

• What is the rationale for promoting a publicly-funded large-scale water storage project – does this signal a failure of the TANK Plan, being implemented to address water issues affecting the Heretaunga catchment?

• Why are the Council expending ratepayer money and staff resources on providing water for local argi-business when this is surely an on-farm cost to those businesses?

• Who will own the water once the project is in place – will this be another case of using ratepayer money to implement a water storage project, issuing consents to build a dam wall, store and distribute water, then handing the project over to private enterprise to profit from every drop of water that leaves that wall, as is proposed for Ruataniwha v.2?”

A major concern for Wise Water Use is Council’s propensity to selectively cite figures from the flawed 2023 Regional Water Assessment Report as a rationale for publicly-funded large-scale water storage projects.

“Council and those promoting publicly-funded large-scale water storage projects have a track record of selectively citing figures from the flawed 2023 Regional Water Assessment Report, and omitting to cite a scenario from the same report whereby a water surplus could be achieved with Wise Water Use!

“Scenario 3 of the Report posits a potential saving of 16.2 Mm3 of water by 2040 with modest annual reductions in of between 1% - 2%; however, this scenario is almost never cited as it clearly doesn’t suit the agenda,” said Le Lievre.”

Wise Water Use believes that promoting water savings through education and land use change is where Council should be focusing its energy and resources to achieve local water resilience, instead of investing more ratepayer money in publicly-funded large-scale water storage projects.

“Moreover, the Report doesn’t identify which catchments predicted water shortages could occur in and instead cites aggregate figures encompassing the whole Hawkes Bay region, nor does it break down water usage by specific agri-business or industry sector users. We hope that Council is not once again selectively citing figures from their own flawed report as a rationale; however, have no way of knowing as there has been no public disclosure.

“It is totally unacceptable for Council to be operating behind a veil of secrecy when they are using ratepayer money to promote an unspecified scheme, with no public mandate, which will affect the entire Heretaunga Plains ecosystem.

“Council’s reasons for excluding the public from this discussion, that councillors or their contractors might be subject to ‘improper pressure or harassment’, and the usual commercial sensitivity claim, simply do not bear scrutiny. If there are commercial figures then redact them and release the ratepayer-funded report.

“Wise Water Use HB calls on Council to act transparently and to release their report on the proposed Heretaunga Water Storage Project without delay,” concluded Le Lievre.

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