Farmers have Maniototo fears

Press, 4 February 1984, Page 23

Farmers have Maniototo fears

PA Dunedin Central Otago farmers still do not know how much the Earnscleugh irrigation schemes is going to cost, but fear it may be $6 million more than estimated in 1981. The Ministry of Works and Development is reassessing the original $13.6 million costing of three years ago, but it is unclear when the revision will be complete. Farmers are impatient with progress being made, and in the shadow of the financially troubled Maniototo project, fear the worst in cost increases. “It would not surprise me to see a cost increase exceeding 100 per cent of the 1981 figure,” said the chairman of the Earnscleugh Irrigation Committee, Mr A. G. Campbell. In the farmers’ eyes, the true cost of the scheme is only $6.6 million as they regard the $7 million in onfarm costs as Rural Bank loans which should not be included in the estimates. They think any estimates now done by the Ministry are “more likely” to be on the high side because of what happened with the Maniototo project. “The cost of the scheme bears a very close relationship with the cost of the water which we will have to pay for,” said Mr Campbell. The Commissioner of Works, Mr R. G. Norman, has strongly denied any suggestion that the Ministry’s estimates would be too high. “We are not shielding ourselves with high estimates, but we are being very prudent,” he said.