Mike Petersen: This dam debate – it is time to lift ourselves from the battles of yesteryear

Those who say there is no shortage of water in Hawke's Bay are ignoring the reality of the situation facing the region, Mike Petersen says.

* Mike Petersen is chair of the Tukituki Water Security Project

OPINION

Planning for the long-term future of Hawke’s Bay is not easy.

But it is time to lift ourselves from the battles of yesteryear and recognise that the issues of growing water deficits need to be considered more urgently as a community.

Public debate opposed to the establishment of a community trust that will focus on the issues of water security and water resilience risks detracting from the reality of the real water challenges facing this magnificent region.

We are blessed in Hawke’s Bay; a region that has a proud history of farming and food production, in a whenua that has wonderful natural resources.

The cold hard reality, however, is that as a result of climate change and population growth, these resources are already becoming depleted.

The Tukituki Water Security Project (TWSP) group came together in 2020 to have a fresh look at sustainable water security with a different set of priorities based on the future not the past.

The TWSP is not ‘Ruataniwha – version 2′.

A re-scoping exercise, undertaken by Lewis Tucker, evaluated seven different options against eight different criteria and reinforced that a range of solutions would need to be implemented to achieve greater water resilience for Hawke’s Bay.

Importantly, the only option identified that provided benefits for the region was catchment-scale water storage at the Makaroro site to capture a small percentage of water at peak flows to utilise during times when water is scarce.

This option was assessed as providing the most economically viable and beneficial option and importantly can assist with water security in the southern Heretaunga catchment as well.

The project has recently received encouraging support by the Government including the inclusion of the TWSP on Schedule 2 of the Fast-track Approvals Bill.

The project itself promotes wise water use by capturing and utilising surplus water to improve environmental flows, ensuring communities have equitable and sufficient water to protect and stimulate economic activity.

Inclusion on Schedule 2 does not mean the project is now under way, and securing access to the 22ha of Department of Conservation land that sits in the Makaroro footprint remains one of the outstanding matters for the project.

The decision by the Supreme Court in 2017 was not a decision about the merits of what was proposed, but a ruling that the process of making this land available was unlawful, which is expected to now be resolved through the Fast-track legislation.

There is now a huge amount of work to do to get this project across the line.

The backers of the TWSP are aware of the inflationary environment over the past 10 years, but early feedback from across the region continues to indicate that there is sufficient interest in completing the necessary pre-construction work to understand how this project could be developed, and to determine whether water can be delivered to the right places at the right time, and at an affordable cost.

There is a lot of misinformation and scaremongering being circulated by those opposed to this project. Costing and revising the full business case is an important piece of work that is now under way, but to be clear, the TWSP has never sought ratepayer investment or for ratepayers to “underwrite” this project.

Claims by some in the community that there is not a shortage of water ignores the reality and does not take into account future population growth and climate change trends that impact significantly on the future for this region.

Alongside the TWSP itself, the project team has supported the formation of a community trust to hold the consents and transparently guide the operating project in the future.

Water security and resilience will benefit future citizens, mana whenua and residents across all of Hawke’s Bay, and it was felt that protecting the consents in this way is in the best interests of the community and generations to come.

The TWSP has also identified an opportunity to provide benefits to help address the supply issues in the southern Heretaunga and TANK catchments in the northern area of our region.

As an example, providing water to the Whakatu industrial area from the Tukituki River would reduce demand from the Heretaunga catchment, ensuring depleting takes are reduced there, helping water security for residents and businesses around Hastings and Napier.

We recognise some members of our community are opposed to this project and we also know the status quo is not sustainable. Our collective future should not be left to chance, and this is the time to be working together to ensure water security for our region is protected and progressed.