As the communities and councils across the country discuss the Government’s Three Waters proposal, Ongaonga in central Hawke’s Bay is already wrestling with growing demand for a limited resource.
Ongaonga locals told Whena Owen on Q+A with Jack Tame bores that had previously delivered a steady supply of clean, clear water are drying up, while just down the road irrigators on farms are going non-stop. They’re having to pay thousands to put down deeper bores, truck in water, or rely on neighbours with deeper bores to get by.
Long-time residents say streams and rivers used to be dry only at the height of summer for one or two months, “now it’s dry probably 10 months, 11 months of the year, and the irrigators, there’s more of them, they’re running constantly.”
“Most people can’t afford to put down a deeper bore just to try and access that water,” one local said.
“You can’t afford to buy it; water’s actually dearer than petrol," another added.
READ MORE: Local councils, mayors divided over Three Waters reform
While climate change is contributing to the problem, locals lay most of the blame at the feet of the regional council. Landowner Clint Deckard says springs are drying up and he argues: “Our Regional Council won’t admit that our local aquifer is over allocated.”
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council CEO James Palmer says it has “a high level of sympathy for what has occurred by way of change in those communities'.
He says many households in smaller rural communities have older bores which can be shallow.
"They’ve been drilled down to where the water traditionally was, before all the intensive irrigation agriculture expansion took place.”
The draw from intensive irrigation agriculture will only increase, with eight local farming companies applying to take a further 15 million cubic metres of ground water a year. Those companies declined to speak to Q+A.
Anna Lorck, the MP for Tukituki - along with Ngāti Kahungnu and Forest & Bird - is among those who have submitted against the proposal, asking: “How can this community survive when we’re going to take another 53% out of our deep aquifer of the Ruataniwha basin?”
Palmer says the upcoming hearings will be a chance for everyone to have their say.
“The debate that will be had … and the science that will be contested, and the views of the many stakeholders who have submitted will be all about whether those effects are being adequately managed and whether this is a truly sustainable way of operating.”
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