I’ll bet the top brass at the Regional Council were unhappy to see Rod Oram’s article — Damming conclusions — in the most recent Sunday Star Times!
Especially since Oram is an eco-futurist the HBRC has brought to Hawke’s Bay in the past to inspire us to greater good.
Says Oram, speaking of the Regional Council: “In its enthusiasm as the project’s promoter it has given environmentalists and other opponents short shrift.”
Amen!
And:
“For evidence of Ruataniwha’s economic value, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council offers a series of studies it commissioned. But they contain some significant contradictions and risks. The ‘Prosperity Study’ for example, correctly identifies low-wage, low-value and volatile commodity agriculture as one of the region’s economic weaknesses. The main remedy it recommended was more of the same from the Ruataniwha scheme plus the vague hope the region’s farmers can somehow move themselves up the value chain.”
That’s right … if it isn’t working, just do more of it.
Here is Oram’s complete assessment.
Tom Belford