Substantial fine for irrigating without a resource consent

A local crop grower, Dharminder Singh, received a fine of $15,000 in the Hastings District Court yesterday for irrigating a crop without being in possession of a resource consent to do so. The irrigation occurred on 18 January this year while parts of Hawke’s Bay suffered drought conditions.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council staff noticed that employees of Mr Singh were preparing to irrigate crops in a field beside the Expressway. Knowing that there was no resource consent for taking water on the property, they instructed Mr Singh not to irrigate.

Under cover of darkness, Mr. Singh turned on the irrigation system and watered his crop. When HBRC officers visited the property in the early hours of the morning, they discovered the offending.

Mr Singh pleaded guilty in the Hastings District Court offering the excuse that he needed to irrigate to save his crop. Judge Rae noted that Mr Singh did not have a resource consent to irrigate and that there was no reason why his crop should take precedence over any other crops that were prevented from using water.

HBRC’s Manager of Resource Use, Wayne Wright says, “This is not a case of someone with a resource consent being prevented from using water because of a water take ban. This is clearly a situation where a grower has planted crops without having the necessary resource consents to take water in the first place.”

Mr Wright adds, “The offending was discovered by vigilant Council staff and further confirmed by staff re-visiting the site.”

Irrigators are urged to check their resource consents before the upcoming heavy irrigation period and ensure their consents allow them to take the amount of water they need to irrigate their crops. It is important that all irrigators understand the conditions of their consents. Growers should contact the Regional Council early if they need to make changes to their allocation to better suit their requirements, noting that changes take 20 working days to process.

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