Public meeting for opposition to Whanganui water bottling plant

A public meeting to discuss opposition to the Anzac Parade water bottling plant will be held at the Whanganui War Memorial Centre. Photo / Bevan Conley

A public meeting in Whanganui will give the community the chance to raise concerns about a bottling company's plans to extract millions of litres of water from an aquifer on Anzac Parade.

Tūpoho iwi chairman (and the man organising the meeting) Ken Mair said the gathering would take place at the Whanganui War Memorial Centre on Wednesday night.

"It is a chance for the community, for iwi and hapū, to have a say and find out what's going on if they're not aware of it," he said.

"We are expecting that councillors and the new mayor will attend, because they are part of the community, but the meeting is about everyone having an equal voice in questioning the resource consent that has been granted."

Bottling company Aquifer 182 was granted consent by the Horizons Regional Council to extract 37 million litres a year from the artesian bore on a former milk processing plant on Anzac Parade in Whanganui East.

Consent for the application was granted by independent commissioners despite a weight of submissions against the proposal.

There were 37 submissions from the public and 33 were against it.

"I don't think commissioners from outside Whanganui should be able to give consent for a proposal like that," Mair said.

Aquifer 182 was co-founded by Whanganui man Geoff Murdoch, who is one of three local directors, along with Marshall Tangaroa and Declan Rogers, who collectively hold 50 per cent of the company's shares.

The other 50 per cent is owned by the unnamed offshore shareholder.

The 15-day appeal period for resource consent has now lapsed, and Mair said he believed a number of submissions had been made.

"I'm not optimistic that they will be successful, and I think the community needs to come together and make a noise about it, because this water is coming from our rohe, our place, and it shouldn't be happening.

"Nau mai, haere mai - come along to the meeting to share your thoughts and find out more."

Aquifer 182 director Marshall Tangaroa was contacted but declined to comment.

The meeting will be held at 5.30pm at the Whanganui War Memorial Centre on Wednesday, October 12.