Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council appears to have hammered the last nail in the coffin of the Ruataniwha Irrigation Dam.<\/p>\n
Late yesterday it announced that the only option left on the table to keep the scheme alive will not be pursued.<\/p>\n
Councillors confirmed<\/a> that they will not be using the Public Works Act to grab the land needed to make the dam a reality.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the only avenue remaining for the Government and Regional Council to push through a big irrigation project that so many people didn\u2019t want,\u201d says Greenpeace Agriculture Campaigner, Gen Toop. \u201cThe dam is effectively dead in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n The Regional Council have set aside 80 million dollars to fund the scheme<\/p>\n This follows a ruling by the Supreme Court last week that the area of conservation land cannot have its protected status revoked to make way for the dam.<\/p>\n Local Iwi Ngati Kahungunu, Forest and Bird, Greenpeace and hundreds of local community members have all opposed the proposed dam over environmental issues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ruataniwha Dam was the poster child of the Government\u2019s think-big irrigation agenda,\u00a0 which is now very clearly flailing and needs to be put down.\u201d says Toop.<\/p>\n In the wake of Ruataniwha, Greenpeace is issuing a warning to other think-big irrigation schemes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe demise of the\u00a0 Ruataniwha irrigation dam sends one clear message to other proposed irrigation schemes around the country: Their days are numbered.\u201d<\/p>\n The dam would have driven land conversions to intensive dairying and further river pollution. As a result it has faced monumental opposition across the board, both locally and nationally.<\/p>\n Over 90,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the Government stops funding big irrigation schemes.<\/p>\n The dam has faced several local<\/a> and national<\/a> protests, including in September last year when Greenpeace returned the proposed dam\u2019s site office<\/a> from near where the dam was planned back to the Council.<\/p>\n Key investors have also walked away from the dam, it\u2019s faced a lengthy consent process and a court battle which it ultimately lost.<\/p>\n Last October, the people of Hawke\u2019s Bay made their opposition to the dam clear when they voted out the pro-dam majority council and elected in an anti-dam council.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ruataniwha dam would have meant more industrial dairying and more pollution in our rivers so this is a victory for our rivers and for the thousands of people that opposed the dam,\u201d says Toop.<\/p>\n \u201cThe huge public opposition which has resulted in the dam\u2019s demise is a stark warning to the other large irrigation schemes planned, like Central Plains Water and Hunter Downs in Canterbury.\u201d<\/p>\n Greenpeace is demanding the Government’s\u00a0 irrigation subsidies be spent on a transition fund to more sustainable forms of farming.<\/p>\n The environmental organisation is releasing a short documentary today, starring NZ farmers, called The Regenerators: A better way to farm.<\/p>\n