Repairs to earthquake-damaged farm water supplies look to be taking the same path as buildings, with the Canterbury Regional Council advising farmers – fix now, get permission later.

Many stock water supplies and irrigation bores were damaged during last weekend’s quake, and while the extent of the destruction still isn’t clear, the council is urging farmers to get their systems back up and running quickly.

The Government is fast tracking a law change on housing consents so rebuilding can start straight away, and council Planning and Consents Director Don Rule says farmers should be granted similar leniency.

"It’s just about finding a simple way of circumventing the consent process before undertaking the action.

"We don’t know the numbers, we’re just saying let’s get a consent process that gets paperwork out of the way to the extent possible.

"And, for the circumstances that meet the criteria we’ve outlined, at no cost.”

Mr Rule says farmers wishing to drill new water bores should do so as close as possible to old, damaged ones.

“As long as they’re in reasonably close proximity to the existing bore there shouldn’t be any problems anyway, we have a fair bit of information about where they’re drawing from and how much and what have you, it’s not like a new bore."

Mr Rule says the council will post guidelines for emergency bore replacement on its website in the coming days.