Oligarch Alexander Abramov pulls 60,000L of water a day to irrigate his lush lawn
Saturday, 29 July 2017
A Russian oligarch has been given consent to pull 60,000 litres a day of fresh, local water for his luxury lodge.
Businessman Alexander Abramov will use the water to keep his lawn lush and green in summer at his $50 million resort in Helena Bay.
The application has upset locals who gather watercress from the stream – one called it 'frivolous', another called it a 'slap in the face' to Maori – but is nothing compared to the increasing commercialisation of New Zealand's fresh water.
The Northland Regional Council granted a non-notified resource consent to Abramov to extract up to 60,000 litres of water a day from the nearby stream. According to the billionaire's spokesman, the water is needed to show off a clean, green image of New Zealand to wealthy guests. He said lodge staff had apologised for failing to adequately consult neighbours.
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More than half the water consented by councils is for irrigation, according to Statistics NZ. Climate change is predicted to exacerbate pressures on the flow of water and its availability. Currently, the biggest cause of altered river flow appears to be irrigation.
The National Government has rejected calls to charge for usage, saying no one owns the nation's water.
But in having no owner, water has become a hot product. Private residents like Abramov are using water in their homes; businesses are swooping up resource consents to draw water from local streams and rivers for bottling and irrigation.
New Zealand depends on water to fuel primary industries such as dairy farming, which means it is a key component of the economy. The country's bountiful and affordable electricity is generated in hydro dams, drawing industries like the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.
And councils including Ashburton and South Waikato have offered land or access to companies to extract water.
The Hurunui Water Project, a proposed irrigation scheme for 21,000 hectares of land in North Canterbury, has applied to the Government for the power to forcibly acquire land.
And in June, bottling company New Zealand Pure Blue Limited applied for the rights to take almost 7 million litres of water per day from the Waihou River's Blue Spring near Putaruru, South Waikato.
Nobody may own water outright, but many have consent to right to pump it out of the waterways.
Abramov's spokesman Chris Seel said the resource consent allowed for 60,000 litres every 24 hours, which was 3 per cent of the river's flow at the lowest flow levels. 'There is no recorded history of this stream running dry or close to dry,' he said.
The Helena Bay lodge boosted Northland's tourism sector and its image in its most popular season was critical, he added. 'What is the purpose of water? It is to create life. We are growing grass, I do not think that is frivolous at all.'
With the general election just over a month away, the Greens want New Zealanders to decide on a fair price to pay for irrigating water from New Zealand's waterways.
Water spokeswoman Catherine Delahunty said the local community had every right to question and object to the Helena Bay water extraction. 'Personally, I do not think a billionaire with a flash resort is more important than sustainability. Ever.'
The Opportunities Party founder Gareth Morgan said New Zealand had taken a 'first in, first served' approach to its fresh water. 'That's fine until you run out of water and then we say 'what do we do now?''