Wairarapa Times-Age E-Edition

Water on the mind

GRACE PRIOR grace.prior@age.co.nz • Additional reporting by Marcus Anselm of Local Democracy Reporting.

Public scrutiny of a taxpayerfunded water strategy for Wairarapa is imminent as Wairarapa’s Green Party hosts a hui on climate change and water resilience today.

The event will be MC’D by former Green Party candidate John Hart, and a key speaker will be Green List MP Eugenie Sage.

Hart said they decided to put on the event because they felt there hadn’t been enough public discussion about water resilience.

He said that there could be more than one solution to the water problem in Wairarapa, and it would be a shame to look back in 10 years and not to have explored them.

The event aimed to hear from a wide range of perspectives, some of which included Wairarapa Water Limited’s [WWL] chief executive Robyn Wells who will be speaking about the proposal of the Whakamoekau reservoir.

Wairarapa Green Party representative Celia Wadebrown said the main point of the hui was to “have a broad, informed and long term view of water needs”.

She said some of these needs included biodiversity, climate change impacts, and how Wairarapa could consider ways of providing water for our communities’ environmental, cultural, social, and economic wellbeing.

Green MP Eugenie Sage will be speaking about the proposed organisation of water services and the three water’s proposals for large regional entities and water resilience.

Mike Birch is set to discuss the Ruamahanga Whaitua process, water storage, and resilience issues for Wairarapa.

Hart said there was more than one solution to Wairarapa’s water problems and hoped this meeting could spark some good ideas.

He said strategising water use could mean avoiding the need to use it.

“We want to have other voices heard other than those that are prevalent. I hope they can make their case on their merit.”

Event organisers said after the speakers, Hart would open the session to the floor for questions.

Dame Margaret Bazley, chair of the Wairarapa water resilience strategy [WWRS] committee, said a report into Wairarapa’s water future would be tabled at district council meetings in the next few weeks.

The WWRS was funded by $110,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund, paid out last year.

This funding followed a $7 million windfall to fund a feasibility study for the WWL’S Wakamoekau Water Storage Scheme, a key component of the strategy.

The document was composed by a Wellington consultancy with input from a committee including 30 elected officials, council staffers, and iwi, land users, commercial interests, sector and advocacy groups.

The draft paper, which has undergone multiple iterations, is said to form the backbone of the districts’ response to rising water challenges.

Dame Margaret said the strategy “is crucial for the region’s future in the face of increasing and potentially acute climate change pressures”.

“I can’t emphasise enough the importance water resilience holds for everyone in our community; inconvenient rationing as we have most summers will be minor compared with what will be required if we don’t plan for climate change impacts in the next few decades.

“Everyone needs to do their bit to avoid the looming disaster.

The water hui will be held at the Carterton Events Centre at 7pm tonight.

The events centre will be in tiered seating format, with a capacity of 350 people.

FRONT PAGE

en-nz

2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://times-age.pressreader.com/article/281543703800518

National Media Limited