National Direction Sought

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32265, 7 April 1970, Page 26

National Direction Sought

“We believe that the administrative system for planning, construction operation and maintenance of irrigation schemes is inadequate and inefficient,” Professor J. R. Burton, and Mr T. D. Heiler said yesterday.

Professor Burton, professor of agricultural engineering at Lincoln College and director of the Agricultural Engineering Institute, and Mr Heiler, senior research officer of the institute, said this in submissions to the irrigation committee of the Water Allocation Council. They suggested that all aspects of irrigation development should be undertaken by one authority. “On the one hand we believe that there is insufficient over-all direction at the national level, with consequent piecemeal and stop-go development and an overemphasis on local and individual interests at the ex-

pense of the national interest,” they said. “On the other hand there appears to be too little local participation in the administration and operation of irrigation schemes.”

They said the Ministry of Works was responsible for the planning and investigation of major schemes, for the engineering design of distribution works as far as the farm gate, and for the construction, operation and maintenance of the majority of schemes. But its engineers had no special training in irrigation science or agricultural engineering and did not appear to be greatly concerned with farming techniques or the pattern of onfarm usage of water, which should basically determine the design and operation of irrigation systems. “No Special Expertise”

The Department of Agriculture was largely responsible for on-farm investigation and the design of onfarm works and this was largely undertaken by agricultural scientists with no special expertise in agricul-

tural engineering. Some onfarm design and construction was undertaken by the Ministry of Works and some by contractors, and in neither case again was there any expertise in agricultural engineering. All design was undertaken on a rule-of-thumb basis in the absence of data about water and other requirements, the two men said. Some schemes were operated by counties whose technical staff had no background in agricultural engineering or irrigation science. Government research was undertaken by the Department of Agriculture at Winchmore, which was more effective as an extension agency or demonstration farm than as a research station and had done very little to provide basic research data for Canterbury and Otago conditions.

The primary initiation of major irrigation schemes came from the farming community, hot from the Government departments responsible for irrigation, the two men said. In theory an in-

vestigation was not undertaken until a request came from farmers in the area concerned, so that long-term planning for future irrigation development was not possible and development on a regional basis depended entirely upon the geographic distribution of enthusiastic landholders. Nucleus Of Organisation

Since irrigation development should not be divorced from other aspects of water resource development the proposed authority should be set up to deal with water resources development in all of its aspects. In their opinion the nucleus of such an organisation alreauj existed in the National Water Authority and its constituent councils, together with the Water and Soil Division of the Ministry of Works. The two men said the reconstituted National Water Authority should be an autonomous governmental organisation funded by annual grant directly through the Treasury and responsible to the Minister of Works.