Budget money for water storage

First, listen to March 4th 2013 to hear about drought on farms this past summer.

The Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy said that in the long term the government wants to invest $400m in regional water irrigation. In the short term, the Budget gave $80m to farmers for irrigation and water storage. Mr Guy said that only 2% of water from rainfall is stored and farmers needed some way of storing rain water. He also said that New Zealand is not short of water – we have many rivers and lakes, and most areas have plenty of rain during the autumn, winter and spring. The problem is when we have a dry summer like this last summer. If there was more irrigation, more land could be used for farming.

One dairy cow can drink about 70 litres of water a day, depending on the daily temperature. The average dairy herd size in the year 2010/11 was 386 cows so dairy farmers need a lot of water. Water is also needed on the land to make the grass grow.

Fruit and vegetable growers need irrigation too if there is not enough rain. Some crops, though, have done well this year. It has been a good season for apples and grapes. Wineries are expecting very good wine this year after a long, hot summer.

Vocabulary

• Primary Industries – industries from the land e.g. meat, wool, milk; (secondary industries are from a factory)
• drought – no rain so nothing grows
• regional –some areas
• irrigation – putting water on the land
• herd – group of cows
• crops – plants which produce food

Questions

1. Many New Zealanders are worried about taking water from rivers and lakes for irrigation. Why?
2. Many New Zealanders are worried about taking water from aquifers (under the ground) for irrigation. Why?