The Process – ownership, consultation and resource consents

• The project is being driven by the Central Plains Water Trust (CPW Trust). It was conceived and established by the Christchurch City and Selwyn District Councils to facilitate sustainable development of central Canterbury’s water resource.
  
  The CPW Trust is a charitable trust established by the city and district councils. The scheme is a public, not private, venture.
• In 2003, the CPW Trust established a company – Central Plains Water Limited (CPWL) – to raise the money required and obtain the consents needed for the project to commence on behalf of the CPW Trust. If the consents are granted, the CPW Trust will license their use to CPWL which will be responsible for implementation and operation of the scheme. The consents will be owned and administered by the CPW Trust and water will be allocated to CPWL and others, such as recreational users.
  
  For more detailed information about the history of the project, please see separate section, HISTORY.
• The scheme cannot be built until it has been granted nearly 100 resource consents by Environment Canterbury and Selwyn District Council. The cost of the legal and technical work involved in gaining those consents is estimated at more than $4 million.  For more detailed information about the consents and designations, please see separate section on CONSENTS AND DESIGNATIONS.
• To date, this work has been financed by shareholders – farmers who own land within the scheme area who responded to CPWL’s oversubscribed share offer in 2004 which raised $4.7 million – and via loans provided by Christchurch City Council and Selwyn District Council.
  
  There is strong farmer support for the scheme. Approximately 75% of farms in the scheme area (around 300 farms) are shareholders and each has invested an average $15,000 to fund the feasibility study and resource consenting phase.

An estimated 75-80% of farmland in the scheme area (red boundary)
is owned by CPWL shareholders (shown in blue)

• Extensive consultation has been undertaken over the last five years, involving more than 100 meetings with potential water users, landowners, environmental groups, Department of Conservation, Fish & Game, recreation groups, township committees, tangata whenua and other landowners who will potentially be affected.  For a summary of the consultation history, please see separate section, HISTORY
  
  The purpose of consultation has not only been to communicate, but to identify any potential environmental, social, economic and cultural impacts of the scheme, and to identify ways to enhance the environment. This has greatly assisted the technical experts to design the scheme in such a way that it avoids or mitigates adverse effects wherever possible.
  
  Consultation to address potential effects and concerns is ongoing and will continue throughout the resource consenting and construction processes.
• A range of options are currently being considered in order to finance the current estimated $409 million construction cost.
• Once resource consents are obtained and the scheme is built, farmers who own shares in CPWL will have the opportunity to enter into a water use agreement whereby they pay for water delivered to their property. The cost per unit of water will depend on final construction costs and how the scheme is financed.
  
  Ultimately, individual farmer shareholders will base their decision on whether to access water from the scheme according to a range of financial benefits including the productivity gains that a reliable water supply delivers, the opportunity to change land use to more profitable farming activities and lower electricity costs (as they no longer have to pump water from wells).
• In order to receive water from CPWL, individual farmers must commit to the scheme’s Sustainability Protocol. This requires them to adopt best farming practices in relation to fertiliser application and rates of water use so as to best maintain and enhance healthy groundwater and river / stream systems.
  
  CPWL is also actively supporting a national Sustainable Farming Fund project entitled "Development of an Irrigation Scheme Sustainability Code of Practice”.
  
  All water supplied to farms by the CPW scheme will be subject to a levy collected on behalf of the CPW Trust. Called the Environmental Trust Fund and 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.
  
• The CPW Trust and CPWL will remain closely linked, with the Trust owning the resource consents on behalf of the wider community to manage the potential recreational, social, cultural and environmental benefits.

© Copyright Central Plains Water Ltd 2004