The CEO of Federated Farmers Conor English reports on water storage issues for NZ in The NZ Herald. About 500 years ago Leonardo da Vinci said: "Water is the driving force of all nature."As farmers we harness nature, we harvest it for our families and society, and we nurture it for future generations. We are the custodians of our land and water resource. When we talk about water storage let's not do that in isolation of nature, of the driving force of water and the importance of the environment. We need to take a smart, balanced approach. In the city you don't wait for the rain to fall before you have a cup of tea. In the city we have water at the right place at the right time. We store water, we bank it, we save on the rainy day and so we can use it when it isn't raining. So why not do more of the same in the country? The story of NZ is not complex - fertile land, it rains, we grow grass, which we convert into protein. We sell this to a hungry and prosperous world helping to pay for our social and other services. It's a measure of a nation how it looks after its vulnerable people but we need export dollars to do this. Federated Farmers want the Government to: * Put water storage on the list of infrastructure projects that the Government supports to help the nation through the financial crisis.* Reduce the hurdles that make the gestation for such projects long, risky and expensive, such as the RMA.* Review legal instruments that prevent common sense solutions for water storage.* Offer bridging finance - if we can back banks, why not water banks? Using appropriate models, the Government could help fund projects through the long capital intensive gestation. The Cullen fund with its new mandate to invest 40% of funds in NZ is one source of funds, but there may be other options that need to be explored. * Review the Sate Highway 20 Waterview connection tunnel with a view to cancelling it. This 3.1km "tunnel with no hill" is costed at about $1.9 billion or about $600 million a kilometre. Build the road but cancel the tunnel and use some of the savings for water storage projects. The return to the country will be far greater.* Include water storage as part of its practical and formal policy response to global warming.* Factor water storage into policy formulation on water allocation and other water frameworks and issues, such as potential Treaty issues as it can dramatically change the dynamic.
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