WATER SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20988, 17 October 1933, Page 6

WATER SUPPLY

NEEDS OF ASHBURTON COUNTY ADDITIONAL SOURCES TO BE INVESTIGATED Investigations into the potential sources of water supply in the Ashburton county for irrigation schemes and supplementing the present supplies for stock were commenced yesterday by Mr W. Beck, an engineer of the Public Works Department. Mr Tjeck has recently returned from the United States, where he spent two years in studying irrigation and hydraulics. He was appointed to undertake his present work following a request made by the Ashburton County Council to the Minister for Lands (the Hon. E. A. Ransom) when he visited Ashburton some months ago. A conference between Mr Beck, Mr F. Langbein (Canterbury district engineer to the Main Highways Board' 1 , and the Ashburton County Council on the subject of irrigation and water supply was held at Ashburton yesterday morning. The chairman of the county council 'Mr J. Moore, jun.) .said the difficulty of the council to-day was to obtain more water for the north-western pori lion of the county and also for the Ashburton liding. Mr Langbein said that a comprehensive investigation of water supplies in Canterbury should be undertaken so that, if irrigation was undertaken on a comprehensive scale, they I would know exactly where the water I was available. Irrigation in America. Mr Beck said that during two year?; in the United Slates he had had excellent opportunities for investigating irrigation, but in no place in America did he see any place which offered such excellent,opportunities for irrigation as the Canterbury plains. The water could be obtained cheaply in Cantor! iry compared with America. Where irrigation had been undertaken in America it had proved well worth while. Water Required for Stock. Mr James Carr said the problem with which the district had to deal was that it had huge bodies of water in the Rakaia and Ashburton rivers which were of no use at present. In the north-western corner, near Mount Ilutt, there were about 10,000 acres of some of the best land in the county, which was handicapped owing to lack of water. There was only one small source of supply r.t present from the > * side of the mountains. As subdivision I was undertaken to a larger extent more water would be required for stock. The south bank of the Rakaia river was about 700 feet high and the difficulty was to raise the water to the top of the terrace. There were other small sources of supply on which a leport was wanted. The first consideration was water for stock; thm informaton upon the availability of water for irrigation. Mr S. P. Taylor stated that the water supply in the Ashburton riding had been very low during the last two winters, and th.; lack of water for stock was becoming a serious matter. The Lagmhor creek, which was the chief source of supply for the district, should be supplemented. Mr W. G. Gallagher said that a difficulty was that the north branch of the Ashburton river, which supplied a large area of country, was not fed ironi perpetual snowfields. The best scheme 1o overcome that drawback ju .is to drain Lake Heron into the I south branch of trie Ashburton river j instead of ihe Raka ; a. The water i could then be transferred by the ' : natural tall of the land from the south branch to the north branch of the Ashburton river. That was the only way in which amide water could be made available for the Chcrtsey and Wakanui districts. tndcrtfround Supplies. A:r R. W. Wight man mentioned the possibility of tapping springs and underground supplies in the region of Mount Hull. Mr Keck said the suggestion w.is good. Very successful work had been done in America by the utilisation of underground water. "We want to see if we can exploit the water under the surface of the land before any further suggestions are made," he said. Mr D. J. Morrow drew attention to the large area of land between Surrey Hills and the Rangitata river which required more water. Figures showing the rainfall in the north-western corner of the county were given by Mr Carr, who said that during the last 40 years the heaviest fall for r.nv one year was 52 inches and the lightest fall 25 inches. He sttited that there we're 1000 farmers m the Ashburton county occupying one acre or more, and all could take mure water for stock purposes. "A thorough stock should be taken of all our sources of water supply," said Mr Carr. : The investigation of Ihe system of l carrying out the annual cleaning of j water i aces was mentioned bv Mr I 11. C. 11. Witholl, who said Mr Beck might be able to advise them of some better method. "We do not want information to go out that our water supply has failed," said Mr Frampton. "Wc have an excellent system, and our investigations should be directed towards obtaining an estimate of the cost of augmenting the present supply." Mr Beck commenced his investigations with a staff of five men at Mount Hull yesterday.