In the Media

Hororata farmers take expensive water option

Published by Stuff, October 2015
Dairy farmers say they took a long-term view when investing in the Central Plains Water scheme, even though they already had access to irrigation water from aquifers.

Water started flowing in early September in stage one of CPW covering 23,000 hectares at Te Pirita and Hororata. Sourced from the Rakaia River at high flows, water travels down a 17km headrace canal before flowing into 132km of underground pipe which delivers irrigation water to individual farms. Many farms in this area, particularly dairy units, were already irrigating from wells, but have chosen to switch to the community scheme, even though in some cases it is more costly.