The feasibility study into the Ruataniwha water storage dam in Central Hawke’s Bay has been given a major funding boost as the first project in the country to receive funding from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s Irrigation Acceleration Fund.

MAF has announced it will inject $1.67 million dollars into the dam’s feasibility study currently underway. The project has previously received $350,000 of MAF support. The $4.8 million feasibility study is looking at all aspects of the dam proposal from land intensification through increased irrigation capacity to the financial viability and environmental effects.

The proposed dam would see irrigation takes moved to stored water in turn having a positive downstream effect for the Tukituki River, by taking the pressure off the river and enabling it to return to naturalised flows during summer months.

HBRC Chief Executive Andrew Newman says the aim is to improve the water quantity and quality of the Tukituki River, which would be great news for the environment, recreational users and the wider local community.

The proposed dam would be capable of storing 90 million cubic metres of water for irrigating between 17 and 22 thousand hectares, subject to land use, effectively doubling the irrigated land in Hawke’s Bay. It also has hydro-potential of 6.5 megawatts.

Late last year the project took an important step forward following the completion of geotechnical work showing the proposed site on the Makaroro River is ‘technically feasible’.

Picture: Hawke’s Bay Regional Council