WITHOUT A COMMUNITY IRRIGATION SCHEME |
WITH A COMMUNITY IRRIGATION SCHEME |
| Private ownership of resource consents. | Public ownership of resource consents. (the CPW scheme’s consents will be owned by the CPW Trust – a charitable trust established by the Christchurch City and Selwyn District councils). |
| Individual commercial gain is the key driver. Limited community gain as individual or small groups of farmers that apply to take water from Waimakariri and Rakaia are not required to make a commitment to sustainable community, recreation and environmental benefits. |
Public scheme designed for overall community good. Collective approach and economies of scale allow for a wide range of social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits. |
| Water supply is not very reliable because: - options for water storage are minimal - farmers cannot take water from rivers during low flow / drought periods when they need it most |
Water supply is highly reliable because water storage provides water ‘in the right place at the right time’. This means: - more opportunities for high value farm production. - economic impact of drought significantly lower |
| Individual farmers continue to apply for resource consents to access groundwater from aquifers. | Significant drop in applications for groundwater consents. |
| The majority of farmers continue to pump water from underground aquifers. Aquifer levels remain unnaturally low: - threat to ongoing supply of drinking water for some ‘house wells’. - ongoing degradation of water volumes in lowland streams. |
Farmers receiving water from CPW scheme stop pumping water from underground aquifers. Aquifer levels rise: - protects drinking water supplies for rural ‘house wells’. - the volume of water in lowland streams gradually restores. |
| Potential for farms to be sold and their water rights (to take water from the Waimakariri and Rakaia Rivers) lost to overseas interests. | Water rights owned in perpetuity by the community via the Central Plains Water Trust. |
| Consent conditions are used to manage environmental effects. Consent authorities must carry out compliance monitoring for all individual consents. |
CPWL takes strong advocacy role in support of achieving excellence in environmental management across the scheme. Water users supported and assisted by CPWL to adopt sustainable farm management best practice measures that minimise or remedy any adverse environmental effects. At its own cost, CPWL carries out ongoing monitoring and reporting on environmental performance of individual farms and the scheme as a whole. |
| No enhancement fund. | Environmental Trust Fund administered by the CPW Trust. Amounting to around $60,000 a year, the fund will be used to support and encourage various environmental enhancement initiatives (eg. Riparian planting and habitat restoration) within and ‘downstream’ of the CPW scheme area. |