The Hawkdun Idaburn Irrigation Company will host a visit to its proposed dam site from 1pm, after which discussion about the development will take place in the Oturehua Tavern.
Company chairman Ken Gillespie said the proposed Mt Ida dam would be of a similar height to the existing Falls dam on the Manuherikia River, and would store up to 15 million cu m of water - enough to irrigate about 2000ha.
Situated on pastoral lease land managed by members of the company, the dam would cover about 200ha and almost "drought-proof" the land farmed by the company's 65 irrigators.
Mr Gillespie said it would be situated near Mt Ida and State Highway 85 on the boundary between the Ida Valley and Maniototo plains.
It would irrigate the majority of 3265ha which the company had "signed up for" within a 72,000ha area, he said.
If constructed, the dam would be partly filled by sections of the Mt Ida water race, which fell within the Ida Valley catchment.
"As far as we are concerned, it's major. Most people [in the company] have a small area under irrigation which is very subject to constraints of drought.
"We've got no real dam supply and are reliant on the run of the mountain streams . . . When they dry up, we run short of water," Mr Gillespie said.
At present, company irrigators were being supplemented by water from the West Eweburn dam at Naseby, which was keeping farmers "out of trouble" as mountain streams remained low, he said.
Mr Gillespie said the company was formed about 15 years ago from a committee, and started planning the dam in about 2004.
He said although the company was in a position to borrow money needed to build the dam, it would have to further study its viability.
"Finance is the biggest thing for us. It was estimated to cost about $10.8 million when we first looked at the proposal, so that number may have increased now.
"It has to be financially viable before we do anything . . . I haven't booked the bulldozer just yet," he said.
