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Shane Jones Former Minister of Regional Development NZ First party

Adaptation for a premium return – water storage is an absolute must

Irrigation, water storage, and dam development are critical to the future of our food industry. As weather patterns change, we must adapt, whether as investors, farmers, or regulators. Rather than joining the shrill voices preaching doom and gloom, adaptation will give a premium return in the face of climate change.

As the year draws to a close, farmers and other food producers face a political blizzard. These issues include further greenhouse gas regulations, a new planning regime, economic volatility, and the uncertainty brought by 2023 being an election year.

Successive governments have undertaken plans and strategies to boost resilience through irrigation and water storage. However, the political lip has moved faster than the fiscal hip. Investment is now more urgent in order to improve output and earnings from land with elite soil characteristics.

An example of this is the Northland/Tai Tokerau water storage initiative led by former National Party politician Murray McCully. The funding for this investment came from the Provincial Growth Fund. The reasoning was simple; harvesting and releasing water would improve Tai Tokerau land use outcomes.

The Matawii dam located near Kaikohe was processed through the fast track resource consent legislation. Unfortunately, the process was not as expeditious as the political architects envisaged. However, the project is nearing completion.

It is obvious that landowners will need to store more water. At a minimum, the regulations governing this activity need to be refined. Increasing the size and quantity of storage dams is a priority. Landowners should be given more scope to undertake such work without Resource Management Act (RMA) consent, providing the work has been certified by an engineer.

Māori landowners are in an especially difficult situation as climate regulations and other changes are imposed on the primary produce sector. They can never sell their land due to the nature of the tenure and stewardship obligations. Water storage is an absolute must.

In the postCovid environment our export sector has to be turbocharged. Tourism earnings are not likely to recover for quite some time. However, the nation still needs foreign exchange earnings. This comes principally from our primary producers.

There is an ongoing role for the government to promote and facilitate the extension of water storage and irrigation. There will always be voices of dissent. However, maintaining our first world lifestyles requires firstrate water harvesting and irrigation.

The costs associated with accessing aquifers is prohibitive, as Māori landowners in Northland have discovered. They fear that the land they have retrieved through the Treaty process will become a stranded asset in the absence of reliable water supplies.

It has become fashionable in climate change politics to label the agricultural sector as laggards. Politicians fear being dismissed as climate sceptics. This makes them lukewarm supporters of water storage. The very people who plan to spend taxpayers’ money. Well, first we must earn that money.

The marriage of water storage and enhanced land use will be positive for rural areas such as Wairoa which have high quality soils. Fortunately, Minister for Economic and Regional Development Stuart Nash is a proponent of such outcomes.

The transition to intensive horticulture will provide employment opportunities and be a positive development for communities beset with long term social challenges. Infrastructure for water storage needs champions, processes, and promotion at the top of our political system.

The new planning regime released by Minister for the Environment David Parker needs to be subjected to intense scrutiny. Will it incentivise economic development and reduce the deadweight effect of excessive red tape? Hopefully it will boost economic dynamism and enhance the productivity of our primary produce sector.

There is an ongoing role for the government to promote and facilitate the extension of water storage and irrigation. There will always be voices of dissent.

However, maintaining our first world lifestyles requires first-rate water harvesting and irrigation.