Guest column – Vanessa Winning

Focus on water

By Vanessa Winning

IrrigationNZ’s chief executive takes a look at the vital resource that is water.

What a great time to be involved in water in New Zealand.

Aside from the infrastructure developments in the 1940s or the ‘think big’ days of the 1970s, we haven’t had as grand a discussion as we are now – from capture to storage, harvest and use.

These infrastructure conversations at local and central government, along with policy changes, are focused on ensuring we have adequate drinking water, sewerage and stormwater, as well as improved environmental outcomes and the additional production of renewable electricity.

All of this leads to the logical conclusion that NZ needs a significant and immediate investment in water.

When people think about irrigation, it’s often at the application end of the process of food production – but it starts with the rain and the snow, and importantly, our ability to capture and store it. While our population, and growing and harvesting of food has expanded significantly since the 1970s, our water infrastructure has remained stagnant. It’s also gotten drier and warmer, most especially on the East Coast.

Te Mana o Te Wai is an attempt to get us thinking about the river or the body of water being a living breathing thing itself, and therefore the rights start there, with iwi and community next and production of food after that. To ensure we can work towards these worthy goals, we need investment in infrastructure. We shouldn’t have an “us and them” when it comes to water in the land of the long white cloud, there is more than enough for all of us, but we can respect the hierarchy.

If we then look at the Climate Change Commission report and suggestions about reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and changing the use of land to increase horticulture and reduce animal agriculture, we see a need for water infrastructure on both sides of this equation. If we need about 170% more renewable energy in NZ to electrify – and we are not prepared to set up a few nuclear power plants, then we are going to need more investment in hydroelectricity to complement the increases in wind and solar energy.

These hydro generators are going to need to be closer to their customers to further reduce wastage in transmission. On the other side, and probably for me, the more controversial side, to reduce animals in our system we are going to need to get more efficient, reduce our waste, increase crossbreeding across beef and dairy, set up farms for multiproduction systems, and some of that will be an increase in horticulture, viticulture, and even medical marijuana. This land-use change will also need more water at the right time in the growing cycle.

What is pleasing though is that the conversation and stigma of irrigation is changing – we are being approached to be involved in a number of activities from rural water suppliers, regenerative agriculture, water security and availability, and how we join these things up.

We are hearing new infrastructure options being discussed, working through business cases, getting approvals and even starting to break new ground. We are providing options of multi-use irrigation schemes, focused on providing drinking water, power generation and recreation, as well as productive use.

We are seeing local government investment exploring options of multiple sites in a region to reduce reliance on some of our rivers, and using this newly captured water to regenerate water bodies that are struggling. As the member body for irrigators, schemes and the sector’s supply chain, we are getting pulled into lots of conversations across all government departments with a focus on water – and while it is hard to keep up – it’s pleasing to see such a focus and understanding of its importance to both our future production, and our decarbonisation. We are also seeing our member farmers and irrigators continuously improving their techniques, getting the recognition for this in their environmental planning and working on lowering their environmental footprint.

As I say, it is a great time to be involved in water. n

IrrigationNZ chief executive Vanessa Winning says New Zealand needs a significant and immediate investment in water.