Proposed Irrigation and Storage Scheme

Central Plains Water Trust has applied for a number of resource consents relating to the construction and operation of a large scale irrigation scheme. The applicants propose irrigating 60,000 hectares of land between the Rakaia and Waimakariri Rivers, an area stretching from the Malvern foothills to State Highway One.

The proposal includes a 55 metre high dam containing a 12km2 storage lake. Water would be distributed from the lake via a 10km tunnel and an extensive network of distribution canals directly to irrigators.

Under the proposed scheme, water would be abstracted at a rate of up to 40 cumecs (cubic metres per second) from each of the rivers through two intakes on the Waimakariri River and one on the Rakaia.

Central Plains Water Trust has been granted requiring authority status by the Minister for the Environment, enabling it to apply to local councils to ‘designate’ or set aside land that it needs to set up infrastructure.