Alpine rainfall ‘enough for Canty’

Press, 6 March 1989, Page 2

Alpine rainfall ‘enough for Canty’

By

KAY FORRESTER

Enough rain to irrigate the region fell on Canterbury’s alpine catchment areas, a North Canterbury Catchment Board officer told a meeting on Canterbury’s water resources. Mr Craig Mason, the senior land resources officer for the board, said use had to be made of available river and groundwater sources. Irrigation and its consequential benefits for farming offered the province some hope of improving its economy.

Mr Mason told an open meeting of the Canterbury section of the Institute of Agricultural Science last week that the Rakaia River’s central location on the Canterbury Plains made it crucial to future irrigation. He said that restrictions placed on the use of the water by a conservation order limited its potential as a reliable source of irrigation. Farmers would need support from the community to establish irrigation systems, but with climate changes those systems

were necessary for farming to be truly viable. There was no need to suggest piping water from the West Coast when there was plenty already in Canterbury that just had to be harnessed, he said. The cost of irrigation established was more than justified when balanced by the estimated costs of this year’s drought to farming in Canterbury. The chairman of the regional planning committee of the Canterbury United Council, Mr Trevor Inch, told the meeting the new Canterbury Regional

Council would have an important role in resource management, including water. The crucial decision for the community was what it wanted to do with its water — lock it up for conservation or make it available to farmers. He believed all water users should have to pay to use the river. “If it’s good enough for irrigators and electricity generators, it’s good enough for the jet boat tour operator and everyone else,” he said.