A Word from the Mayor
14 February 20112
In response to a number of enquiries into progress on water management, a brief update of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS) and the Hurunui-Waiau Zone, and Regional committees’ progress is timely.
The Regional Committee is close to releasing its draft RIP (Regional Implementation Programme). Zone representatives, David Eder Hurunui, Claire McKay Waimakariri, Derek Milton Kaikoura, and myself representing the three Councils, are active members of this committee. This committee deals with issues around environmental, cultural, and recreational values deemed to be regionally significant, issues important across Canterbury, not just confined to a local Zone.
Other major Regional Committee work is identifying and planning water supply infrastructure and networks that cross zone boundaries. This is infrastructure for power generation, irrigation, to supply water to maintain or restore minimum river flows, maintain and restore wetlands, aquifers etc. This is referred to as a Regionally integrated approach to water supply.
Hurunui sits outside this, to the extent that our supply needs can be totally met from within our Zone, unlike other Zones.
However Hurunui’s Zone supply strategy is incorporated into the RIP, playing its part in providing an integrated supply strategy across the entire Canterbury region.
Hurunui’s Zone committee has completed its ‘Zone Implementation Programme’ ZIP, now incorporated into the Regional Councils ‘Regional Plan.’
The intended benefit of Regional and Zone programmes is to give guidance to commercial entities to design projects that are compliant.
For example projects need to contribute to the concept of ‘integrated supply’, and contribute in a way that does not impede other projects from being able to complete the big picture. Projects need to ensure that while delivering economic benefits they adhere to the CWMS ‘targets’ and the principles of equal consideration of cultural, recreational, economic and environmental needs.
While Hurunui is self-sufficient in water supply the principles of integrated supply still apply within the Zone.
Currently two projects have consents lodged, HWP and Meridians Rotherham canal, both need to contribute to and not preclude integrated supply across Hurunui.
Cherry picking the easy water to the detriment of fair distribution across Hurunui is unacceptable.
Winton Dalley
Winton.dalley@hurunui.govt.nz