April 30, 2020
Water storage way to prosperity stream
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Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says he has won support from cabinet colleagues for his water storage plans, and the first project should start in Northland later this year.
Officials are working with Far North District Council subsidiary Far North Holdings to assess the suitability of a site near Kaikohe.
Preparatory work is also being done on Te Whānau ā Apanui land near Cape Runaway.
He says water storage will enable new land development and allow small rural communities to keep people employed.
"And I see these water storage initiatives as signposts on the highway of hope for neglected areas within rural New Zealand and in particular Māori landowners and their communities," Mr Jones says.
He says Kerikeri’s current prosperity can be traced back to reservoir schemes developed in the 1970s under the Muldoon Government, but those policies were scrapped under the market knows best ideology of Rogernomics.
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