A draft water management plan for the upper Waitaki catchment has softened its approach to restricting new major irrigation schemes compared with a preliminary plan leaked to the Otago Daily Times in November.
That preliminary plan was sent to interested individuals and stakeholders in the upper Waitaki catchment, west of the Waitaki dam, for discussion prior to the public release of a draft zone implementation plan for water management.
Last week, the Canterbury Water Upper Waitaki Zone Committee released its draft Zone Implementation Programme for public feedback and it did not contain the irrigation restrictions which were in the discussion plan in November. That discussion plan, under the section Nutrient and Water Management, suggested new consents for irrigation of more than 10% of a property or 500ha (including existing irrigation) would be prohibited - effectively not allowed for up to six years while a better understanding was gained about the effects, particularly on water quality.
In the draft plan released last week, that has been removed from the section on Water, Nutrient and Effluent Management.
Instead, under the heading Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Regional Plan and Environmental Limits, the zone committee recommends "a staged approach to new water takes for new irrigation development, urban development or aquaculture".
That would ensure intensification only happened once the effects were more understood, and the intensification was within the nutrient limits set.
A clear understanding of the state of the existing environment was needed and the links between increases in nutrient loads and intensification established.Intensification should not proceed until that information was gained.
The draft plan also recommends actions, responsibilities and time-frames for all activities to help achieve the principles, targets and goals set out in the Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS).
Upper Waitaki zone committee chairman Barry Shepherd said completion of the draft plan was the culmination of months of hard work by the zone committee.
It was followed numerous committee meetings and extensive stakeholder and community engagement to gather information about the region's water resource.
"The recommendations made in the draft programme of work are designed to enable present and future generations the greatest environmental, cultural, social and economic benefits from the region's water.
"We now want to hear what local people like and don't like about the recommendations and whether there are other things they think should be changed" he said.
The underlying philosophy of the Canterbury water management strategy was that local communities should make decisions on local water management.
"There are so many different viewpoints and opinions that have to be taken into consideration when
