Critic of dam given cold shoulder

Peter Fraser has written a report saying the Ruataniwha water storage scheme should not proceed. Photo / Supplied

An economist who questions the viability of the Ruataniwha Dam will not be invited to speak at a seminar for farmers considering signing up to take water from the irrigation scheme.

Irrigation New Zealand and Federated Farmers are running the seminar in Waipawa next Tuesday.

Irrigation NZ chief executive Andrew Curtis said he would "politely decline" a request from a long-time critic of the Ruataniwha water storage scheme, Transparent Hawke's Bay, for economist Peter Fraser to be given an opportunity to speak at the event.

Mr Fraser, a Wellington-based consultant and former dairy issues adviser at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, recently wrote a paper that concluded there was "no economic or commercial rationale to proceed with" the Ruataniwha scheme.

But the analysis Mr Fraser's paper is based on has been rejected by Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company (HBRIC) and others associated with the Ruataniwha project who say it relies on a number of incorrect assumptions.

The debate over the economic merits of the scheme comes as a new poll shows a majority of people support the dam, which would provide irrigation for drought-prone Central Hawke's Bay.

More than 1000 people took part in the non-scientific poll on Hawke's Bay Today's website with 57 per cent saying the dam should be built, 26 per cent opposed to it, and 17 per cent believing other irrigation options should be explored.

Transparent Hawke's Bay co-founder Pauline Elliott said next week's seminar for potential irrigators was a welcome opportunity to "understand how this scheme stacks up financially for growers, farmers and ratepayers".

Allowing Mr Fraser to speak "would provide an excellent opportunity to challenge, question and explore all sides of the current debate on the financial and economic aspects of the RWSS," she said.

Mr Curtis said next week's seminar was about helping farmers analyse the options they had in front of them rather than debating the merits of the scheme.

HBRIC chief executive Andrew Newman told Farmers Weekly magazine the incorrect assumptions in Mr Fraser's paper included assessments he had made on the required rates of returns for investors and the cost of water from the scheme.

Mr Fraser had also overlooked the wider benefits of the scheme, Mr Newman said.

HBRIC is the investment arm of Hawke's Bay Regional Council which has conditionally committed $80 million towards the $275 million project.

"Ruataniwha is not just an irrigation scheme but is aimed at delivering inter-generational environmental, cultural, social and economic benefits to a region where climate change forecasts predict a significant drying and warming trend," Mr Newman said.