Irrigation NZ rejects tourism and environmentalist call for five-year ban on new water schemes

Irrigation NZ rejects tourism and environmentalist call for five-year ban on new water schemes
Fiona Rotherham
By Fiona Rotherham March 14 (BusinessDesk) - Lobby group Irrigation New Zealand has hit back at calls for a five-year ban on new irrigation schemes in the wake of the dairy downturn as being out of step with who reaps the benefit from them. The Tourism Export Council and the Environmental Defence Society say the government’s decision to pour hundreds of millions of dollar into irrigation is a gamble given the dairy downturn and that the growth in intensive farming is a disaster for rivers and streams. But Irrigation New Zealand chief e...