.19 million in funding towards a feasibility study for a locally led water storage scheme during his visit. Photo / James Pocock" data-test-ui="article-media__image" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" />The Government has announced $1.19 million in funding towards a feasibility study for a locally led water storage scheme near Gisborne.
Whānau trust Wi Pere Trust and economic development agency Trust Tairāwhiti will lead the one-year, $3.07 million feasibility project to determine whether the Pouarua Water Storage Scheme and its piped distribution network will work.
Minister of Agriculture Todd McClay announced during his visit to Gisborne this week that the Government will contribute that $1.19m, including the first investment from the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Primary Sector Growth Fund in water storage.
He said it could irrigate up to 11,000 more hectares of the Poverty Bay flats.
“Reliable water means farmers and growers can plan ahead. On the flats, that means higher-value crops, better pasture and more options for farmers,” McClay said.
Wi Pere Trust chief executive Tim Rhodes said the trust wanted to support and help grow the region, and had identified potential water security issues with climate change.
“This was a project we saw we could lead, or certainly get running, on behalf of the community,” Rhodes said.
“The water is absolutely for our community and the growth of this region; it is not about us trying to create some type of business.
“We’re just the ones leading it, so it was really important to talk to Government, talk to Trust Tairāwhiti, talk to a lot of local stakeholders to say ‘Hey look, is this something the community wants?’ and it was a resounding yes.”
The proposed site of the water storage scheme is at Tangihanga Station, behind Waituhi. If feasible, a dam would store somewhere between 25-30 million cubic metres of water.
Rhodes said the Government had completed a draft report on a potential water storage scheme in the area in 1985. The Wi Pere Trust began to look into the concept again in late 2024.
“We basically pulled that draft report out, blew the dust off it and rescoped it to make sure the report was still sensible in today’s terms.”
“That scoping report suggests it was so now, through the help of MPI [Ministry for Primary Industries], TPK [Te Puni Kōkiri] and Trust Tairāwhiti, we are now going to take this project through to the resource consent stage and do the commercial feasibility alongside it to see how we can unlock the prosperity for this region.”
He said other landowners of potentially affected properties had been involved in the project as stakeholders.
The potential extra income for growers who benefit from the water storage could lead to the development of more post-harvest facilities and additional exports from the region, he said.
“At the moment, if you look around the Poverty Bay Flats, there is a whole lot of flat land doing nothing or very low returns purely because it can’t get enough water.”
Trust Tairāwhiti has been approached for comment.
In 2025, it commissioned an independent study called Water for the Economy to understand how irrigation water could strengthen the region’s economy, create jobs and help landowners get more value from their land.
It found only about 10% of the 87,000ha of land in Tairāwhiti that could be irrigated was irrigated.
The report looked at an “improved management of existing water” model with 1030ha of additional irrigated land, where storage dams captured winter flows, a Managed Aquifer Recharge system supported the Makauri Aquifer and land use shifted to higher-value crops.
Report writers AgriBusiness Group and Aqualinc estimated this model could create 1926 fulltime jobs and increase farm/orchard output by 35%.
The feasibility project for the Pouarua Water Storage Scheme will carry out design work, confirm costs and develop revenue and ownership models. It will also prepare the ground for consenting.
“This Government wants farmers, growers and rural communities to have water they can rely on,” McClay said.
“The scheme would bring more growth to the region, new post-harvest jobs and farms and orchards that continue to produce during dry summers.
“I’d like to recognise the hard work of East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick, who has been a strong supporter of this project. She has pushed hard for the jobs and economic development that irrigation could bring to the region.”
Kirkpatrick said the funding and project were a “great example of how the Government and local entities could work together to further regional economic growth”.