Five irrigation companies which use water from the Waitaki River have joined together to make the most of their collective strengths.
After a decade of battling to protect their rights to water, lower Waitaki irrigation companies have formed a collective to pool financial resources and knowledge.
The new Waitaki Irrigators’ Collective Ltd has just appointed a policy manager – Elizabeth Soal, of Dunedin – and plans to take a more proactive approach to issues that will affect them all.
The collective brings together the Lower Waitaki Irrigation Company, Morven-Glenavy-Ikawai Irrigation Company, Maerewhenua District Water Resources Company, North Otago Irrigation Company and Upper Waitaki Community Irrigation Company, representing interests on both sides of the river.
The collective irrigates about 61,000ha in North Otago and Waimate . It will:
• Set up to protect members’ existing water rights and reliability by negotiating-bargaining with or lobbying interested parties who could influence or restrict existing rights
• To facilitate through research and best practice efficient, sustainable use of water
• Where efficiency and development result in surplus water, expand the area under irrigation
• Educate the wider community on the benefits of irrigation to the local and national economy, including reliable supply of water
• Support the interests of other irrigators and extractors whose interests do not conflict with the collective’s North Otago/WaimateWater companies pool resources
This is a very sensible initiative. It’s far better for the companies to work with each other than separately and at odds with each other as has sometimes happened in the past.
