Tuesday, 03 October 2017 14:55

Storage answer to water problems

Written by  Pam Tipa
Sir Graeme Harrison believes the country’s water problems by correctly storing and managing water. Sir Graeme Harrison believes the country’s water problems by correctly storing and managing water.

New Zealand's water quality problems can be solved by correctly managing the storage of water, according to meat industry stalwart and long-time Canterbury resident Sir Graeme Harrison.

He says NZ uses only 4% of its water and it is a shame to see the amount of water pouring down the river off the mountains and out to sea during heavy rain.

“When you spend time in Asia you see how much water is highly preserved there,” he says.

Harrison hails from mid-Canterbury where irrigation in NZ started. The Rangitata diversion scheme was built by the Labour Government as a way to employ people, its construction starting in 1937.

His grandfather was one of the first farmers to use it.

Harrison says 40% of NZ irrigation use is in Mid-Canterbury yet its rivers are pristine.

The northern branch of the Ashburton River runs through his farm.

“There has been some build-up of nitrate levels, but the real reason for that is because we became so efficient at using irrigation.

“Before then it was a flood irrigation system: you would build dykes then let the water run and that made sure the aquifers were recharged,” he explains.

“When we moved to pivots we got too efficient, we used satellites on them and the amount of monitoring of water is incredible.

“I don’t think urban NZ has any idea what sort of technologies are actually at work.

“As a result of that during two dry seasons our nitrate levels increased. Now we are finding a way to recharge the aquifers and we have a managed aquifer recharge operation going on just north of Ashburton. I am on the governance group of that.”

Featured

Big return on a small investment

Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.

Editorial: Sensible move

OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Overbearing?

OPINION: Dust ups between rural media and PR types aren't unheard of but also aren't common, given part of the…

Foot-in-mouth

OPINION: The Hound hears from his canine pals in Southland that an individual's derogatory remarks on social media have left…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter