Cook Govt confident about progress on Te Mato Vai

Transcript

The Cook Islands Government says progress on the giant Te Mato Vai water supply project is being made despite some set backs.

The multi million dollar scheme, partially funded through New Zealand aid and a Chinese loan, is one of the biggest infrastructure undertakings ever in the Cooks.

There have been issues with some landowners opposing the government's approach and other landowners that could not be located, often because they had moved overseas.

The Finance Minister, Mark Brown, says the area where they have been unable to reach the owners will be left incomplete, with people in that zone staying  with their current source of supply.

He says that decision effectively means stage one is complete and Te Mato Vai can continue to stage two.

He says this involves the source of the water and the government has been able to address the concerns that had been raised by this group of landowners.

MARK BROWN: We now turn our attention to stage two which is the upgrade of the intake and catchment areas up in the hills. And again we go to a process of landowner consent, the legal instrument that protects the people's assets, the water facilities and these intakes, called the Rarotonga Water Ordinance. And the Ordinance provides that if the government or the Water Authority wishes to upgrade or make any changes to the intakes it must first seek the consent of landowners. we've heard landowners' complaints or objections on three key issues which the government has been quite happy to address. The first one, our commitment not to take land by warrant. We've honoured that and we'll stick to that commitment. The second one was to not charge domestic households for water, and we've agreed we will not charge domestic households for using water. And the third one is that any water authority that is established to manage the water network, that it not be privatised at any time in the future. And as far as possible, we can write into the agreement or into any legislation that is crafted around the water network of that particular provision.

DON WISEMAN: This project, I think you need to be done by September or you're going to face additional charges, aren't you? Can you get it done by September?

MB: Well September was the deadline for stage one which is the upgrade of the pipeline around the island. As I said, to all intents and purposes, that is now complete. So we've finished that well within the budget timeline, and now we  turn our attention to stage two which is where we are seeking to get a draft agreement with landowners for the provisions that they've been talking about in order for our contractors to be able to go up to the intake sites and start construction work.

DW: What sort of concessions can you offer the landowners to ensure they give you access?

MB: Well the key ones were the ones that I just mentioned earlier. The landowners wanted to make sure that land is retained under their landownership, and we're quite happy with that. The government really just has a right to access and a right to use for water purposes. The second one is for no charges for domestic households, and we've been quite happy with that as well, to put that into place. And also the privatisation issue. Those are the three key ones. Some individual landowners may have some more specific concerns and these are what we'll hear as we go through the second round of meetings with landowners that will be commencing very shortly. I can say though, we've had some initial meetings with the landowners in Takitumu and we've got some very good support from the landowners there for the work to commence as soon as possible to avoid any delay. For the intakes of Takitumu they make up about sixty percent of the catchment area on Rarotonga, so that's a big step for us. We're having the same meetings with Puaikura, the western side of the island, and also with the town side of the island. Once we have the draft agreements in place in our discussions with the landowners, we'll be in a position to go to the judge where the judge can then make a ruling on the draft agreement. And the judge is looking for, I guess, a majority view from landowners on these aspects of the agreement that we have been discussing with them.

DW: If you're not going to charge people for the supply of the water, how are you going to pay off these massive bills that are going to result from all of this?

MB: Currently, we've done the studies on usage by commercial, domestic and other users. So we've got a fair idea already on what commercial users would be expecting to pay. They would carry their share of the usage. They wouldn't be expected to pay for the domestic users' share of the usage. Currently, we pay for the management and upkeep of our existing water intake through an appropriation to the government ministry that manages it, which is the Ministry of Infrastructure. and I anticipate us doing something similar when the new water network is in place, but to be supplemented by commercial users who will be paying for their use of the water and so on.