This video on the Regional Council’s proposed Ruataniwha dam has just been released.
Additional resources on the proposal, including key submissions from Ngati Kahungunu, Te Taiao (HB Environmental Coalition) and Transparent Hawke’s Bay, can be found here.
Good video. We seem to be in a culture of the powers that be say, We’re going to do this, and F#*^ You All!
Good video .Why aren’t the “elected ” Regional council listening to the public ? They are paying lip service to “The Consultation Process” at best and being arrogant and foolish at worst
Tom – you have noted key Submissions but there could be another. Gravel from the Ruahine Ranges, via the Tukituki River, is the sole source of replenishment for beaches from Clive to Tangoio. No 136 relates to how the dam will effect Napier’s beaches and a huge contingent liability to protect or repair infrastructure.
Good one Tom, as i have posted elsewhere – why is that the public have to fight so hard to get heard, once elected officials get the bit between their teeth and have early onset deafness?
One must ask what are the motives of the Hawkes’ Bay Regional Council!
Well, my analysis of them over the years is that they are a very very ignorant bunch of individuals; with tunnel vision and arrogance unequaled in NZ governmental circles.
Clearly there is money to be had short term for a few……..the bureaucrats and policy makers but what we have here is the construction not of a dam but a man made disaster it will cripple many a rate payer. Many ratepayers at the present time cannot afford their current rates.
This project is just another mechanism to export people to Australia and elsewhere……..where can we get some sanity into local government spending.
The dam does not stand up economically
The dam does not stand up environmentally
The dam does pose a threat to life and limb and will physically fail at some stage due to the geological strata in which it is placed!
It’s absolutely persisting down right now. If there were incentives for improved land-based water retention and storage and support or even financial assistance for this, surely it would be cheaper, more ecologically and environmentally sound practice?
I have a small water tank tucked into the side of my urban dwelling in Napier. I am listening to it filling with water and it is music to my ears. I must get another one. I won’t be bothered by water restrictions because I have taken responsibility for my own supply in case the other fails.
Whatever happened to that attitude? If a business can’t be supported by the environment it is growing within, should we be asking the question whether or not it should be there in the first place? Is it my responsibility as a rate payer to support a private business or development? I am prepared to pay taxes for the common good but my sense of community falls far short of what I may be forced to do with my rates to prop up an ill suited business that hasn’t taken responsibility for a ‘rainy day’.
Why are we paying for it . Obviously once” much needed overseas investment” buys up all the improved land takes all the profit and pays their taxes offshore. We are going to be in a very bad place with huge debt we can’t pay and nothing but more seasonal jobs we don’t really want. There must be a better way to spend half a billion we haven’t got.
I suggestion to Brian Dury, and to “us all concerned with water conservation”
We read again the contribution from Amanda Jackson and put in our own water tanks, and listen to the music in our own ears, as our tanks fill up, from “rain glorious rain”