Agriculture Solutions

Irrigation water storage does not need to affect wild rivers.

Ending the water-rush
The water-rush to convert to dairying must simply stop - in most cases it is environmentally unsustainable. It is effectively privatising a public resource - water.

The bullish approach to water storage for dairy conversion at all costs cannot be countenanced. Federated Farmers have been pushing for an overhaul of Water Conservtion Orders to allow the building of irrigation water storage mostly for intensive dairying.

Low-impact water storage
Water storage is important in many places to support stock and crops in drought conditions, even when sustainable land-use is practised. Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency of flood and drought events, particularly dry-spells in the east of both islands. However, the scale of water storage required to protect farms against drought does not require damming wild rivers.

The Opuha Dam in South Canterbury is one example where a water storage dam was constructed without need to dam a wild river. The Opuha is often used as a poster-boy for all water storage projects, but the Opuha did not require the damming of a wild river.

The Wairarapa Irrigation Trust Project initially considered storage dams on wild rivers in the Tararua Forest Park, but has rightly recognised that this would be environmentally irresponsible and very unpopular. Their current plan - currently being consulted with Wild River Campaign groups - would have storage dams on already-developed land.

Other impacts of intensive agriculture on wild rivers
Intensive agriculture and food processing uses considerable amounts of power. For example, dairying is one of the two primary power demand drivers on the West Coast of the South Island. There are feasible co-generation options to mitigate this demand. Dairy sheds produce copious effluent in a confined space. Usually this is treated in oxidation ponds, however, modern biodigester technology can convert it to natural fertiliser and produce electricity - enough often to run the dairy shed's hot water and milk cooling requirements. The hot-water demand can be complemented by solar hot water heating.