Dam site office 'uplifted' and driven to regional council

Greenpeace has "uplifted" the site office of the proposed Ruataniwha Dam and delivered it to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council offices in Napier. Photo Annette Hilton

Greenpeace has "uplifted" the site office of the proposed Ruataniwha Dam and delivered it to the Hawke's Bay Regional Council offices in Napier.

Early this morning, a Greenpeace team removed the site office at Tikokino using a hiab truck, depositing it outside the front doors of the HBRC building, 100 kilometres away in Napier.

It says the council needs to scrap plans for the controversial dam in order to protect local waterways, and it's helping the council do so by returning the site office to sender.

"After what's happened in Havelock North, the council needs to put people's health before more industrial dairying and drop the Ruataniwha Dam," Greenpeace Agriculture Campaigner Genevieve Toop said from Napier.

"Local waterways in Hawke's Bay are already polluted and under pressure. The dam will compound these problems by driving more intensive dairy farming."

The return-to-sender comes just days out from voting papers landing in people's letterboxes for the upcoming local elections.

"The new council will be an important deciding factor in whether the dam goes ahead," said Ms Toop. "Water quality is expected to be front of mind for many voters."

"The council has wasted millions of ratepayer dollars and six years on this dam and they've got nothing to show for it apart from mounting public opposition.

"They need to stop using public money to prop up industrial dairying and instead support ecological farming that looks after our land, people and water."