Sandbank water bank to secure Te Rarawa future

Photo: Te Rarawa Facebook Page.

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The chair of Te Rarawa says a new water storage lake will help build jobs and enterprise in the far north.

The tap was turned on yesterday by Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones at Tupehau reservoir, which has been built on Te Rarawa land at Ahipara with help from a $3 million loan from the Provincial Growth Fund.

Haami Piripi says every year to summer drought seems to last longer, so the reservoir will store winter water from use on the area's market gardens and dairy farms.

"Tupehau is an old word for a wind-blown sandbank. This facility is right on the coast. it is capable of storing 350 million litres of water, so it's a fairly large lake for our area. The moment we turned the tap on we got excess water from the Awanui River and we anticipate it will take 35 days to fill the puna," he says.

Te Rarawa also supplies Kaitaia with some water from its existing consents.

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