Others have said the aquifer is getting dangerously low. Once again the commonsense answer to this is the dam will stop the water coming from the aquifer and should restore it to its natural level.
You do not have to be a scientist to understand straight-out facts.
The environment is going to suffer. More nonsense, as after the dam is completed the surrounding area will provide more shelter to many animals and birds. The plan for the dam is to plant the surrounding area with beautifying trees and make it a place we can all be proud of.
The dam will also provide a wonderful place for family picnics and water sports and will be capable of having many championships such as rowing.
To think the Napier Port will suffer is another nonsense. The dam will enhance its future with increased production for the whole of Hawke's Bay.
To say the CHB farmer should finance the dam is like saying the Napier fisheries and those who use it should have paid for the port.
I understand there will be a small power station built on the dam helping give more security to those that follow us.
I have been to several meetings and listened to the experts. These people were qualified experts in their field and, unlike a lot who write to the paper and protest, know what they are talking about.
One has only to visit Ashburton, a town struggling to survive, and see the industry full shops and a thriving population excited about where they live all due to their dam.
Finally, are the people of HB going to endorse the dam and have an exciting future or are they going to allow it to slip away like they did when the government of the day offered a university to us only to have it taken away because the same type of people against the dam could not decide where it should be.
Increased costs have occurred not because of bad planning but through uninformed protesting, and would this have happened if the dam supplied Napier and Hastings?
I don't think so.
- Kevin Pike is retired and lives in Waipukurau. He is a former stock buyer and farmer.
