Nicky Hyslop: Progress made on water policy

Ruataniwha Dam in the Hawke's Bay.

There have been some great wins for irrigation over the past year.

But concerns still remain around how farmers will practically manage their nutrient run-off, and mitigate other environmental impacts on-farm, while affording access to reliable water for irrigation.

In 2015, we saw great strides in regard to policy direction. The Fourth Report of the Land and Water Forum recommended central funding of environmental infrastructure such as water storage and wetlands.

This infrastructure means fresh water can be captured for environmental benefits such as managed aquifer recharge and augmenting rivers in dry seasons.

Suggested amendments to the Resource Management Act (RMA) will also help streamline the consent process and give more weight to national direction and collaborative processes for scheme development.

The Government's 30-Year Infrastructure Plan included irrigation as one of the foundations for a prosperous New Zealand and recognised that more needs to be done to ensure economic and social benefits are maximised, while still protecting the environment.

With these plans and policies laying foundations for pragmatic infrastructure development, a lot has also happened "on the ground".

After much debacle and debate, a construction timeline has now been tabled for Ruataniwha in the Hawke's Bay now that it has sufficient farmer uptake and investors circling.

Also in the North Island, the Wairarapa Water Users Project is moving ahead through its feasibility stage, investigating possible sites in detail, alongside the level of farmer demand, both now and into the future.

Down south, Central Plains Water opened Stage 1, bringing water to the first 20,000 hectares of dairy, cropping, and sheep and beef land between the Rakaia and Waimakariri Rivers; and consent was granted for the Waimea Dam in Tasman to go ahead.

Scheme development has been bolstered by the 2015 Budget allocation of $25 million of new funding to the Irrigation Acceleration Fund - which helps kick start irrigation projects with seed funding.

As an organisation, we continue to support our rapidly developing industry providing education and assistance to our members - and anyone interested.

We have run 16 Irrigation Manager workshops in 2015 with over 300 attendees. These have a focus on efficient water application in order to save water, nutrients and energy.

Our biennial Conference and Expo continues to bring people together across the industry. In 2015, Irrigation New Zealand launched our inaugural industry snapshot ( see irrigationnz.co.nz under News and Resources).

Similarly, in preparation for yet another very dry summer in the South Island, Irrigation New Zealand extended our SMART Irrigation programme to include domestic irrigators, with a new SMART Watering campaign in Canterbury.

Looking ahead to 2016, alongside our biennial Conference and Expo in April, Irrigation New Zealand intends to hold an Infrastructure Forum in the first quarter of the year to allow industry to come together and discuss their needs for progressing infrastructural developments.

-Nicky Hyslop is chairwoman of Irrigation New Zealand.

-Business and civic leaders, organisers, experts in their field and interest groups can contribute opinions. The views expressed here are the writer's personal opinion, and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz