Canterbury water storage receives $56.4m investment
Published: 18 July, 2025
The Government is investing more than $56 million into water resilience projects in rural Canterbury to help protect against changing weather patterns and increase productivity through higher value land use.
Waimakariri River
The three projects receiving loans through the Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) are:
- Opuha Dam and Irrigation Scheme upgrade – up to $20.8m to upgrade Opuha Dam
- Balmoral Water Storage Facility (Amuri) – up to $20m to build a pond to store up to 10 million m3 – the equivalent of 4,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools – for an existing irrigation scheme where resource consents are already held to divert, take, use and discharge water to land in Amuri Basin.
- Waimakariri Irrigation Scheme – up to $15.6m to develop a large-scale storage facility to improve water reliability through the existing Waimakariri Irrigation Scheme.
Opuha Dam is a vital regional asset which needs an upgrade to extend its life and address flood management, water quality and seismic risks.
As well as irrigating farms, the dam has enabled growth in downstream industries such as vegetable and dairy processing, while helping preserve the river environment.
The Balmoral project will ensure a more reliable water supply for farmers, providing more certainty to continue investing in diversified land use and high-value food production.
The need for a more reliable water supply was also a key driver for the Waimakariri Irrigation Scheme. The project will enable water diverted from Waimakariri River, when it is plentiful, to be stored in ponds and used all year.
The projects combined provide a significant boost to the region’s broader water resilience and supply for the primary production sector.