RIVER DRAW-OFF

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22588, 17 March 1948, Page 3

RIVER DRAW-OFF

DROUGHT PERIODS IRRIGATION PLANTS REMIT TO CONFERENCE A question as to whether the board had any control over irrigation plants operating from the Waipaoa River was raised by Mr. R. Graham at yesterday’s meeting of the P.B. Catchment Board, the questioner pointing out that in dry periods when the river was low the depletion of its flow by a multiplicity of irrigation plants might become a serious problem. The chairman, Mr. J. R. Hair, said that this question had been worrying the board’s engineer recently, when interest in irrigation systems was at its peak. He felt, however, that the real problem for the board was to conserve the water in the higher levels, and limit the rapidity of the run-off which now created swamps in the gullies and dried out the hillsides. Various forms of conservation practice, such as stream damming, vegetation cover, and contour ploughing were wrapped up in the question. The board unanimously approved the following remit to the conference of the Catchment Boards’ Association: “That in view of prolonged periods of drought and shortage of water for essential purposes, and the effect that conservation of water could have upon soil conservation and rivers control, the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council be urged to direct its research resources to investigate and report upon how best to conserve water in New Zealand.”