Cutting the ribbon for the new reservoir are, from left, Te Tai Tokerau Water trustee Kathryn de Bruin, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, trustee Dover Samuels, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and trust chairman Murray McCully. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
A major water reservoir in a drought-plagued corner of Northland is the fulfilment of a pact between two politicians to transform the economy of the place where they grew up.
Waihekeora Reservoir was formally opened on Thursday on the Pouto Peninsula, about 20km south of Dargaville, by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Once full it will hold 3.3 million cubic metres of water, enough to convert 1100 hectares of farmland into high-value horticulture.
Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust chairman Murray McCully said the dam would be "a complete game changer" for the Kaipara District.
"The Kaipara has some of the worst statistics in New Zealand in terms of social indices. It's an area that needed something to provide a catalyst for economic growth and employment," he said.
"This is going to provide that catalyst. It's not going to happen overnight, but it is going to happen."
For McCully the project was also personal, a way of giving back to the place where he was raised.
"I was brought up on a farm just across the river. My family are here and I went to Dargaville High School, so it's a project I have quite a lot of personal investment in."
Part of the 42-hectare Te Waihekeora Reservoir, with farmland newly converted into an avocado orchard by local iwi Te Uri o Hau. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
McCully said Regional Development Minister Shane Jones had shoulder-tapped him to lead the water trust.
"He said he wanted to do for Dargaville what he was doing for the Mid North. I thought, wow, that's an opportunity of a lifetime. I signed up there and then."
Jones said he bumped into McCully overseas about 20 years ago, when they reminisced about growing up in rural Northland - Jones in Kaitāia and McCully in Dargaville.
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says not every politician gets a chance to turn bare sand into three million cubic metres of water. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
The pair made a pact that if they ever had the opportunity to do something practical to improve the lot of Northlanders, they would pursue it.
He said there had been "a lot of doubting Thomases" in the early years of the project, but he was convinced it would transform Dargaville, over time, in the same way irrigation dams had transformed Kerikeri into a horticulture boom town 40 years ago.
The 42-hectare Waihekeora Reservoir was built on a former dairy farm by the Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust with a $35 million loan from the former Provincial Growth Fund.
The reservoir itself cost $26m, pumps and pipelines another $11m.
McCully said the project, which started in 2020, had faced huge obstacles including the Covid pandemic and high inflation.
"So it's a massive relief to get it done."
The trust still had its work cut out to repay the loan through selling shares to water users.
"But as the economy recovers, we're confident we'll pick up our share of the business there."
A key development in recent weeks had been the signing of a partnership agreement with the Kaipara District Council, McCully said.
From left, Te Tai Tokerau Water trustees Kathryn de Bruin and Dover Samuels, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and trust chairman Murray McCully. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Once the pipeline was extended to Dargaville, the town's biggest industries would be able to use water from the dam, taking pressure off the council's struggling town supply.
McCully said the door was open to the council to buy shares in the scheme in future and use the water to supply the town's treatment plant.
More than 100 people took part in Thursday's opening.
As well as local and national leaders, they included representatives of local iwi Te Uri o Hau, which is already using water from the dam to grow avocados.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, flanked by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and his wife Dot Jones, listens to the speeches. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Many candidates contesting the upcoming Kaipara District Council elections attended - with the exception of current councillor and mayoral candidate Ash Nayyar, whose invitation was rescinded for making what the trust said were defamatory statements.
He mounted a protest outside the entrance, along with two Dargaville residents calling on the prime minister to recognise Palestine and impose sanctions on Israel over the Gaza war.
Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust's first reservoir, the 750,000 cubic metre Matawii, was completed near Kaikohe in 2023.
McCully said contractors expected to put in the plug in an even bigger reservoir, the four million cubic metre Otawere, at Waimate North, in the next few weeks, hopefully in time to catch the last of this season's rain.
Otawere would store enough water to irrigate 1330ha, he said.
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