A Hawke's Bay Regional councillor fears authorities have given "mouth to mouth to a rotting corpse" over a controversial strategy to fix water storage in Central Hawke's Bay.
Farmland in Central Hawke's Bay where water storage solutions have become divisive. Photo: Supplied / HBRC
Water security for the future is a big issue in the rural district south of Hastings, but it has become divisive.
Water is needed to improve flows through the summer for river life and provide certainty for irrigators.
The Ruataniwha dam was a large scale project planned over many years as a solution, but it was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2017.
Some in the community accuse others of wanting the dam back on the table.
A group set up to discuss the next steps, the Tukituki Leaders Forum, has all but fallen apart after a decision by Central Hawke's Bay District Council to grant money to a group that owns the rights to the failed dam scheme led two members to leave.
One member who left, Clint Deckard, told RNZ he felt "manipulated".
The next steps were discussed at the regional council's corporate and strategic committee today.
Committee chairman Neil Kirton said the council and community put back the Ruataniwha dam back on the table, even though it was "long dead".
"Our guests today around the table who were part of the conversations... feel as though they were manipulated and they were drawn into the equation to add some sort of community legitimacy.
"You've heard comments from councillors around this table which continue to support and continue to cling to this concept. What we've done is not so much flogged a dead horse, what we've done is mouth to mouth to a rotting corpse. That's a reality.
"I say and agree with the folk that have departed the leadership group that they were manipulated.
"We go now to a community consultation which I believe needs to be open, honest and upfront with integrity."
The proposed site of the Ruataniwha dam. Photo: RNZ
Councillor Martin Willaims said the council was caught between "this rock and a hard place."
"The rock is small scale storage looks cost prohibitive. The hard place is despite every piece of analysis over a decade, the only viable large site that has emerged that is geo-techically competent, that is the right place topographically is [the Ruantaniwha dam] and it's precluded by the Supreme Court's interpretation of a piece of legislation.
"I will never take the dam off the table until I know that there is some other way of achieving our objective of climate resilient water security."
The council will undertake a regional water assessment with "urgent" community consultation. It will consider having water storage below ground instead of above ground.
Clint Deckard was at the meeting and told RNZ the council's discussions were done "very well".
"I think the outcome is the best one at the moment. It's an acknowledgement that the situation we've got at the moment where the focus seems to be entirely on one solution is not going to work. It's a little bit of a pause, pull back and the key is the regional water assessment.
"What I felt during the Tukituki Leaders Forum is that we had missed a step and was deciding or finding out, investigating how much water we've got now, how it's being used and what we need for the future. Hopefully the regional water assessment can inform those decisions."