YOUR INDUSTRY
WAIMEA COMMUNITY DAM UPDATE Anne Hardie
Waimea Community Dam
The Waimea Community Dam has been plagued by continual cost blowouts, but the chairman of Waimea Irrigators Ltd (WIL) says it is an intergenerational project that will enable horticulture to develop on the Waimea Plains. Murray King says the proponents of the dam in the Lee Valley have been working on the project for 20 years and though the increasing cost of the dam is disappointing, the benefits will still be significant.
$75.9 $105 $185 MILLION
2017
MILLION
2019
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LATEST
When the project was first put to the public in 2017, it had a price tag of $75.9 million. By the time it was commissioned in 2019 it was $105 million, and since then the project has been besieged with problems, 48 NZGROWER : MAY 2022
with everything from geological issues to Covid-19. The latest increase takes the project to $185 million and there is a risk it will go higher as the remaining 30 percent of the build is completed. The biggest hurdle for the dam construction work and the cause of increased costs was the discovery of highly fractured rock on the site, with multiple large shear zones (areas of ground rock and clay) bisecting the top of the spillway, plus weak rock under the plunge pool. Added to the geological problems has been high inflation adding to the cost of materials and global supply chain disruptions, materials being in short supply and the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on staff and productivity. The mechanical and electrical works alone are now expected to cost $19 million more than the original 2018 budget. The irrigators who bought shares in Waimea Irrigators own 49 percent of the dam, with some of the larger irrigators paying hundreds of thousands of dollars each to secure water for the future, and buying surplus shares to get the dam over the starting line. Tasman District Council owns 51 percent and will fund that percentage of the operating costs, with just over half of those costs attributed to insurance, rates and consent compliance. The remaining costs cover ongoing dam operations, maintenance, engineering, staff and company costs. The council needs the dam to service its existing communities and future residential and commercial growth.
