SFF Project Summary

Wairau Valley Water Enhancement Scheme

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Report:

The project involves a community group, the Wairau Valley Water Enhancement Scheme (Committee) representing the landowners of the Wairau Valley, completing feasibility studies to determine whether a community based irrigation system for the Wairau Valley is environmentally, technically and economically feasible.

Problem/Opportunity that the project is addressing

Land use change and recent drought are placing an increasing and unsustainable demand on limited water resources in the Wairau Valley.

With the increasing demand and benefits from having water, competition for water permits within the Wairau Valley is becoming very contestable. Not all landholdings have direct access to the Wairau River, which is the major source of reliable water in the Wairau Valley. Those landowners who have access have begun to benefit already from having access and applying water to their land. These benefits are clearly shown on the previous page. However a large number of landowners don't have access to the Wairau River and are applying for water permits from smaller less reliable sources and are being issued with permits with very restrictive conditions or in some cases refused altogether. The reasoning for the restrictive and refusal focus on the unsustainability of the applications and the limited knowledge of what are important water resources and those precautionary approaches are justified. One decision also had the following footnote. The Committee strongly recommends that the applicant and all other potential water users in the Wairau Valley look into a community water scheme.

Some initial inquiries of Marlborough Lines have revealed that the local electricity distribution network for the Wairau Valley is near capacity and any further irrigation, or similar sized connections, would be refused until such time that the network's capacity is increased. To increase the networks capacity would require a significant contribution and commitment from the entire community as no one individual consumer could warrant, let alone afford to pay for the upgrade required.

Wairau Valley Water Enhancement Scheme (WVWES) propose to source and develop a sustainable irrigation source for the economic benefit of the entire Wairau Valley Community. This community-based solution would also provide Marlborough Lines with the confidence and incentive to address the power distribution problems currently being experienced by the Wairau Valley Community.

Progress to Date

The Wairau Valley Water Enhancement Scheme (Committee) was formed in October 2001 and has managed to secure funding to enable feasibility studies to be completed. The initial pre-feasibility was put to tender completed in November 2002.

The WVWES where approached in January 2003 by Trustpower. Trustpower own and operate at a hydroelectric power scheme on the Branch River a tributary of the Wairau upstream of the proposed command area of the WVWES. Trustpower commenced an investigation looking at the potential of building a hydroelectric power scheme within the command area of the WVWES. Trustpower and WVWES continue to work co-operatively with Trustpower during the feasibility assessment of the two projects.

With the backing of the Wairau Valley community and the continued support from the Marlborough District Council and the Sustainable Farming Fund a full feasibility study was undertaken. This study has recently been completed in December 2003.

Latest News

A resource consent application for the Wairau Valley Water Enhancement scheme was lodged with the Marlborough District Council on 30 January 2004.