Interest builds in water from Ruataniwha dam

Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company chief executive Andrew Newman says he is happy with the interest shown by water users in the Ruataniwha irrigation scheme. Photo/File

Central Hawke's Bay farmers and growers have so far expressed interest in taking 42 per cent of the water potentially available through the Ruataniwha dam and irrigation scheme.

Hawke's Bay Regional Investment Company, the regional council's investment arm that is driving the dam project, says it is happy with the current level of interest and expects demand for water to grow once the scheme is built.

The company has signed expressions of interest agreements with 109 potential water users on the Ruataniwha Plains who have signalled they would like to take a total of 43.6 million cubic metres of water a year from the scheme.

Last week the company said the scheme would be able to reliably deliver 104 million cubic metres of water per year, up from 90 million cubic metres forecast in feasibility work done on the project.

The increase in available water has been made possible by factors including a design change related to the positioning of the dam wall and a reduction in predicted water loss as it flowed through the system.

Company chief executive Andrew Newman said yesterday the changes did not affect resource consents for the project, currently being considered by a board of inquiry, because they were within the parameters the board was considering.

Mr Newman said he was happy with the 42 per cent uptake of available water indicated through the non-binding expression of interest process to date.

"I would argue in many ways it will be easier over time to do the next next tranche of uptake. Those customers committing now are committing to something that is not yet built. They can't see it, touch it, feel it - whereas once the pipe is running past a farm gate the water is there, it's easily accessed, people can translate the impact of that in a much more tangible way," he said. "Certainly the experience of [irrigation] schemes in the South Island is that once the pipe is there the uptake moves pretty fast."

The company last week announced it would charge users of the scheme 23 cents per cubic metre of water, a figure that was in line with expectations.

The company is continuing to finalise negotiations with construction consortium OHL-Hawkins to build the dam and is also awaiting the board of inquiry's draft decision on resource consents, due by April 15.

The company expects to present a business case for the $265 million project to the regional council before the end of next month. The council intends to invest up to $80 million.