Canadian visitors impressed by Canterbury irrigation system

Raymond Irrigation District (RID) operates an irrigation system covering some 20,240ha of farmland in Alberta, Canada. The company supplies more than 300 users including municipalities, farms, and habitat areas.

RID is transitioning from open water races to pipelines and is exploring gravity pressure systems like that used by Central Plains Water Ltd (CPW), which is what brought the Canadians to Canterbury in November 2024.

"We have a project to take advantage of the drop from our intake in the foothills to bring a gravity pressure pipeline to our district," said RID general manager Jason Miller.

"But that will generate too much pressure, so we must install pressure reducing valves to manage flow and pressure. The only place in the world we had heard of where someone else was operating a system using these valves was Central Plains Water. So, we reached out to see if we could come over to learn from their knowledge and experience."

Miller said the visit was a success. The lessons from CPW's experience will mean RID can avoid challenges of gravity pressure schemes and maximise their advantages. But, he added, they learned a whole lot more, and it's already resulting in changes to the way RID plans for the long term.

"One of the great things we learned from CPW was the importance of long-term planning. They (CPW) have a great long-term strategic plan and that was another really big takeaway for us that we need to work on.

"There's no doubt that Central Plains Water is at the front of the game in terms of developing this sort of irrigation system. They are showing the way on issues such as improved water management, cutting down on energy consumption, and expanding agricultural outcomes.

"One of the advantages of the gravity pressure pipeline system is it removes the need for large, carbon-producing, engines and pumps. By taking up a system similar to what CWPL has done we will save a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions and, more important, we'll save significant amounts of water. That will enable us to use water in more ways and just be more efficient, demonstrating good stewardship of the water and the land."

RID chair John McKee echoed this sentiment. "We've been around for 100 years but we were tending to plan ahead in small bites at a time. CPW's 100-year plan was how essential it was to plan for a long-term future. That includes things you Kiwis are already doing, such as thinking about our social licence to operate, water availability, energy efficiency, making the most of the water we get, environmental issues and so on."

McKee said RID was also interested in the consenting and water permits environment and how CPW and its farmers dealt with that.

"We are not operating in the same regulatory environment in Canada but it's coming, and we need to be prepared for it. We see CPW as a sort of 'canary in the coalmine' that will give us advance warning of where the world is going with water management tied into sustainability, and the ongoing social right to operate."

A Global Issue

Central Plains Water chief executive Susan Goodfellow said the visit by RID was beneficial for the CPW team as well, especially the discussions on how water needs to be managed for a sustainable future.

"Water supply is certainly now a global issue," she said, "and the exchange of ideas and information with RID was extremely important in that regard. There has been a huge focus on emissions in terms of challenges to the global environment, but I think water has not had enough attention and this will have to change.

"The challenge we share with RID is how we can minimise water waste and maximise and diversify the range of uses water can be put to. This is not only an economic advantage, it is a community and social good, and it demands the sort of long-term planning we are proud of incorporating into the way CPWL operates. It was great to see how RID was very much in agreement along these lines and both companies benefited from this exchange of ideas. If we and RID are going to be around for another 100 years, we cannot think short term. Innovative, forward thinking across decades will be essential to our shared futures."