Protesters spend 12 hours in irrigation pipes

The protesters in Canterbury. Photo / via Greenpeace

Protesters have spent 12 hours locked inside irrigation pipes in a bid to slow the construction of a water scheme in Canterbury on Wednesday.

Police arrived at the scene Wednesday morning and shut the construction site after Greenpeace protesters locked themselves inside pipes and machinery, and blocked trenches being dug for the project.

Greenpeace says the Central Plains Water project near Hororata takes water from the Rakaia and will be used to expand intensive dairying in the area.

Police Inspector Peter Cooper said officers were at the scene on Plantation Road at noon, and that the protest was peaceful.

"There are some inherent health and safety risks at the worksite location," Insp Cooper said.

Protest organiser Genevieve Toop says the group are taking a stand because big new irrigation schemes like Central Plains Water mean more cows, and more cows mean more sick rivers.

The group said it had been encouraged by a recent Supreme Court decision that's halted work on the long-disputed Ruataniwha Dam project, which would have created water for irrigation in the Hawke's Bay.

The Central Plains project is the largest of several irrigation schemes receiving funding from the Ministry for Primary Industries.

The project has a total construction cost of about $385 million and will provide water to about 60,000 hectares on the Canterbury Plains, according to its website.

"This is an enormous publicly funded irrigation scheme which will increase the dairy herd and pollute Canterbury's rivers," Toop said.