The Government has released what it calls a ‘high level response’ to the Land and Water Forum’s April report titled ‘Fresh Start For Freshwater”, which contains 53 recommendations on the need to improve New Zealand’s fresh water management.

Environment Minister Nick Smith, and Agriculture Minister David Carter, announced in Wellington, the 62-member Forum will do further work on what it sees as the ‘complex issue of setting water limits and improving systems for allocation’.

They announced the Government had agreed to provide an additional $1.1 to advance to the next stage. The Forum has to report back to Government by May 2012.

Almost in the same breath Agriculture Minister David Carter announced that the Irrigation Acceleration Fund is now ‘open for business’.

Promoted in this year’s Budget, the Fund provides $35 million over the next five years to support the development of proposals to the ‘investment ready’ prospectus stage.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research suggests the Fund could support 340,000 ha of new irrigation, which would boost exports by $1.4 billion a year, by 2018, rising to $4 billion a year by 2026.

Irrigation New Zealand has welcomed the announcements.

Chairman Graeme Sutton is quoted as saying ‘it is about providing social and economic resilience to both urban and rural communities – this is not just about water for irrigators’.

And Ian Mackenzie, the Federated Farmers environment spokesperson, says Government has got the balance right.

He said the Irrigation Fund will ‘ help transform and future-proof New Zealand Agriculture’, and the Clean Up Fund will ‘help remedy the legacy of the past’.