Group too late to stop dam

Press, 1 April 1982, Page 2

Group too late to stop dam

PA Wellington Representations by the Save the Rivers organisation had come too late to prevent the Clutha River being dammed, said the Minister of Works and Development (Mr Quigley) yesterday. After receiving a delegation from the organisation, Mr Quigley said work Would go ahead on the Clutha electricity scheme. A spokesman for the delegation said the scheme would cost $l2OO million, including SSI3M for the Clyde dam, on September, 1980, figures. Ms Patricia Sarr said work on the dam should be stopped because it was not needed except to supply aluminium smelter electricity. She said it was like starting work, building the piles for a home, the owner

of which then died, but construction going ahead even though the house was no longer needed. Ms Sarr said so far “only $lOO million” had been spent on the scheme, and the Government could save a lot of money by stopping work now. Save the Rivers said it told Mr Quigley yesterday that the Clutha was being dammed “only to save political face.” But the Minister said the group had not said that to him. The organisation said the Government had called Clutha’s electricity “spare.” “The Clutha is not a spare river, nor is any other river spare, and none must be dammed to cover up for a myth of surplus electricity which was exploded almost two years ago,”