By Juliet Speedy
The Government has approved an unusual special measure blocking any new water consents on Canterbury's Hurunui River over a 14-month period.
The moratorium will stop water takes from Canterbury's fourth largest river and will put a hold on the Hurunui Water Project – a decade of work by a group of North Canterbury farmers pushing to irrigate 42,000 hectares of land in the area.
The farmers and environmentalists have been scrapping for years over the future of the Hurunui River – now it's all on hold.
“Today I'm announcing that I've approved an application by the commissioners under the Environment Canterbury Act for a moratorium to be placed from Friday,” Environment Minister Nick Smith said today.
The commissioners want a regional water plan in place before they consider any more big applications.
Farmers have applied for the right to take enough water to irrigate 42,000 hectares of farmland, while the river's recreational users are pushing for a conservation order that would protect it.
“Decisions that are going to impact on that river for the next 50 or 60 years and to take a year's breathing space to make sure we get it right, in my view, is exactly what we need to do,” Mr Smith says.
Even those behind the $300 million irrigation project support the moratorium, despite the delay.
“Initially I imagine they will be a bit upset about it but when you have time to think about it, it's a pretty positive step,” says Mike Hodgen of the Hurunui Water Project.
This is the first big move by the commissioners who earlier this year replaced a dysfunctional elected regional council.
Conservationists also welcomed the moratorium but they're sceptical.
“When Nick Smith talks about 14 months, what he's doing is he's taking us very neatly to the next election and what the Government doesn't want is weapons for the public to use against them,” says North Canterbury artist Sam Mahon.
The moratorium was announced the day after a group of farmers in the Hakataramea Valley were granted irrigation rights to take water from their local rivers; it took the old Ecan nearly a decade to make that decision.
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