Media Release

25 January 2013

Little Rain Relief For Irrigators

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is not expecting any significant rain in the coming week and the showers overnight were not enough to greatly impact on the region’s dryness.

It is expected that irrigation takes that are linked to minimum flows in the Raupare Stream and the Waipawa, Upper Tukituki and lower Ngaruroro Rivers will need to cease next week if there is not more significant rain.

These rivers are very close to their low flow limits.

“We know this is a difficult and stressful time for growers, but there needs to be a reasonable amount of rain across the plains to increase the soil moisture and bring river levels back up," says Iain Maxwell, Group Manager Environmental Management.

“We are working very closely with irrigator groups to encourage them to roster and ration water, and work together to draw out the resource availability. It is vital that water users communicate with each other to coordinate their activities when flows are low, to reduce the chance of dropping rivers below minimum flows”.

“Two weeks ago, rain alleviated the situation and this, fortunately, gave irrigators a little more time to get water on their crops,” he says.

ENDS

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