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Authored by Gren Christie - Lead advoctae for Wise Water Use
The Ruataniwha Dam is once again causing acrimony and division within Central
Hawkes Bay.
This has become worse since our District Council {CHBDC} sprang it on us ratepayers this week they wanted to form a Community Trust - it is clear from Council papers that the purpose of the Trust is to facilitate the building of the Ruataniwha Dam v.2
That gives the right optics so dam promoters can tap into Mr Jone’s slush fund and then spend a fortune on a business plan / gravy train.
We need to ask ourselves right now how much are we prepared to pay for Dam water before looking at the other alternatives available?
$27million has been spent with nothing to show for it other than a bad taste in the mouth.
Under our current Mayor, Alex Walker, the CHBDC has paid out at least $112,000 to advance
the Dam with a further $200,000 sucked out of our community lines company, Centralines.
The holders of the dam consents and Intellectual Property Rights (IP) wish to transfer their rights into the Trust and get reimbursement for all their costs. Those costs would be north of $300,000.
The Trust would then inherit the liability for future annual HB Regional Council science charges which are considerable $$$.
If the Dam was to be built there would be costs for roading repairs and upgrades to the Dam site, plus a charge on so-called environmental flows, plus the cost of getting shingle to the coast to mitigate against coastal erosion (no shingle would move down the river past the dam wall). A $$$ -black hole!
The cost bandied about the first time around for Dam water was 27 cents per m3. That figure was low because it was to be subsidized by HB Regional Council ratepayers. The HBRC financial advisors [BNZ] stated at the time a commercial return on capital would put the price per m3 at between 45 and 50 cents per m3.
Farmers, CHB ratepayers and HBRC ratepayers need to ask themselves are they willing to pay what could be almost double that now, given inflated construction costs and the bad habit of Dams to completely blow their budgets, such as the Waimea Dam (150% over budget).
It is worth remembering that even after a disgusting amount of ratepayer and taxpayer money was spent developing the dam concept that the price of water was still too expensive for enough farmers to sign up for the project to get it over the line.
It was dead even before the 2017 Supreme Court ruling that 22 ha could not have its conservation status revoked.
We would be better off all round if our Council did some simple sums, worked out the realistic cost of water based on inflation from 7-years ago, and asked if anyone would pay that? That’s all the business plan we need.
If most say NO then forget about the Community Trust and save us all from more grief, time and money.
If the Council is hell-bent on a Trust then we need more than the 2 weeks’ time offered for feedback and have genuine public consultation so all liabilities and ramifications can be considered without the hype and spin.
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