DOWNLANDS WATER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19997, 24 July 1939, Page 6

DOWNLANDS WATER

BIG IRRIGATION ' SCHEME

830 MILES OF/ 'PIPES

MODERN MACHINERY USED

In 18 months from now tile Downlands water supply scheme in Canterbury will be in operation. That estimate of the completion of one cf the biggest watering schemes undertaken in New Zealand was.-given by engineers to the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. R. Sernple. when he inspected the progress of the works.

The intake for the Downlands scheme is on the Tengawai River. The area to be served totals 154,1)00 acres, bounded on the north by the Kak’ahu River, on the west by the hlghhills of the Levels and Mackenzie Counties, in the south by the Otaio River, and otuthe east by the sea.

Wprk has been at full speed on the scheme for six months, and already 11 miles of the main pipe line —the pipes" are 13in. Lin diameter —have beeti laid! The country opened, up'to taket the main pipes is : much further aheicl. Two mole drain plants are placing the smaller pipes in the ground for a distince averaging one mile and a-half daily.

“If the pipe-laying had been undertaken under the old methods of manual drain-cutting and pipe-laying, the work, it is estimated, would have taken, with the men we now employ, 36 times as long,” said the Minister. “Apart from the hopelessness of tackling such a huge undertaking by the old methods of hand labour, the cost woulfl have been positively prohibitive.”

Although each local body concerned has yet to fix the rates it will charge for supply, the engineers anticipate that,the rate Will be approximately 3d an acre, a sum paid now in matty cases for stock water alone.

The magnitude of the scheme can be best pictured by the statement by the Minister that the piping, if placed in a straight line, would, extend from Invercargill to Christchurch, and from Wellington to Whangarei. The total length, of various sizes, is 880 miles. This will distribute water for domestic consumption and .stock purposes oyer 154,000 acres, and meet the requirements of 4000 persons and 200,000 head of stock.