Taniwha Water Storage Project (Wai Ora)
Ka hangaia e maatou too maatou ake whare
(Our own house will be built by us) to safeguard water supply for future generations.
Wai Ora
The Taniwha Water Storage Project (Wai Ora) was one of the five Taniwha Projects that form Amohia Ake - the Waikato-Tainui resilience plan. Wai Ora was designed to give effect to Te Mana o te Awa and help unlock headroom to enable development of our whenua (given the current challenges to access water for economic use).
This project reviewed the current land portfolio to look at the costs and benefits to creating water storage within the Waikato River catchment. The land being considered for this project is our open cast mines at Rotowaro.
Whilst there are several potential benefits, the primary focus is to secure enough potable water to address both the current demands but also enough to support community needs well into the future. This need was emphasised by the water shortage crisis in Taamaki that required additional water to be taken from the Waikato River.
Wai Ora is designed to ensure water can be sourced in a manner that protects the mauri of the river system both now and well into the future. Waikato-Tainui and WSP (nee Opus) are working together through all phases of the water storage project. At its core, Waikato-Tainui is looking to secure a heathy water source for our marae and hapuu.
Ookapu marae, Assessment of water storage
Current project focus
The primary purpose of the project is to understand the cost implications of complying with new drinking water legislation across our Waikato-Tainui Marae.
47 Marae assessments were completed on the existing drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure as well as to collate any available information on the existing infrastructure.
For both water and wastewater any upgrades that are recommended will be developed to a conceptual level only for costing purposes.
The new drinking water legislation is still being developed and the requirements may change from the draft standards that are currently in circulation.
For this project, any upgrades recommended to the water treatment process will be based on requirements stated in the latest version of the draft standards.
