More than $100k spent on feasibility study for water Rangitīkei farmers didn’t need

A plan to sell surplus water from the Marton Dam to farmers in the area didn't go ahead due to lack of benefits. Photo / Bevan Conley

An investigation into creating a scheme to sell surplus water in Marton cost more than $100,000 before conversations with farmers revealed it wasn’t needed.

The Rangitīkei District Council launched a pre-feasibility study in 2018 to see if it was possible to sell surplus water from the Marton Dam to farmers for irrigation and stock water.

That study ended up costing $100,648, according to a response the council gave under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA).

A majority of that - $73,429.09 - came from the Ministry for Primary Industries, a council spokesperson said.

“The pre-feasibility study identified that there could be benefit to the community from this scheme, which was informed by conversations with farmers,” the council’s chief operating officer Arno Benadie said.

Following the completion of this study, council applied for funding from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) for the next phase of the project, developing a detailed business plan for the scheme.

Head of investment at Kānoa (Regional Economic Development and Investigation Unit) David van der Zouwe said the council was approved for $120,000 of funding to complete the plan for the water scheme.

The council then continued conversations with farmers to determine the interest and commitment from potential users.

These conversations revealed a number of farmers already had independent water sources for stock and irrigation water, Benadie said.

“We found a number had implemented independent solutions, including establishing on-farm water bores.”

He said the scheme no longer had benefits or support from the community originally identified by the study, and the project was closed with all work suspended.

Richard Morrison was one of the farmers the council consulted with over the feasibility of the scheme.

He said whether or not the scheme went ahead largely came down to how much the water would have ended up costing farmers.

“The reality was there was a bit of interest from farmers just around accessing more stock water... but I think it came down to basically money,” Morrison said.

He said all farmers in the area have their own supplies of stock water, but the scheme could have provided water that was better quality and more secure to access across the summer when other water sources dry up or drop off in quality.

However, he said it was still good the council looked into it and made sure local voices were represented.

The $120,000 initially approved for the scheme by the PGF was never received by the council.

It was one of 143 projects awarded a total of $242 million, which all later had to be pulled before they got off the ground.