November 12, 2021
Mōtītī water grab alarms hapū
Hapū on Mōtītī Island are angry Bay of Plenty Regional Council has granted non-notified consent for drilling an irrigation bore.
Mōtītī Rohemoana Trust says Sunchaser Investments has planted 120 hectares of avocados without consideration of the island’s limited water supply.
The consent is for the drilling and not for the water take.
The trust says previous retrospective resource consents granted to Sunchaser and its predecessor Mōtītī Avocados Ltd to dam rivers and take surface water has affected the quality and condition of the catchment to the point where waterfalls now trickle and in some cases streams no longer flow to the ocean.
The trust is already in the High Court fighting the council’s water policies and a proposed plan change.
It says it appears the drilling consent was issued without any environmental or cultural assessments and no monitoring conditions.