Volume One 5. Allocation of Public Resources water resources from other sources. This objective seeks to maximise water availability in order to mitigate the significant negative effects of water shortages, especially for primary production, which relies on water to grow crops. The sustainable yield from the water resource can place natural limits on the ability to achieve this objective, but where there are opportunities to supplement water resources, these will result in a more resilient economy and community. [R] Policy 5.8.1 – Encourage the storage of water as an effective response to seasonal water availability issues. Given Marlborough’s dry climate, especially over the summer months, storage of water has been utilised as a common strategy to offset temporary shortages of water for irrigation purposes. Storage has involved the interception of runoff by damming ephemeral water bodies, the damming of intermittently or permanently flowing water bodies and the placement of abstracted water in purpose-built reservoirs. There may also be the potential to augment river flow from the stored water. All of these approaches provide a back-up supply of water that increases water user resilience. For this reason the storage of water is strongly supported. In some cases, activity status will assist to encourage the storage of water by providing for activities involved in storing water as a permitted activity or controlled activity. Damming of intermittently or permanently flowing waterbodies can create the potential for adverse effects. These effects will be considered through Policies 5.2.21 and 5.2.22. [R] Policy 5.8.2 – Provide for the abstraction of surface water for storage purposes during periods of higher flow for subsequent use during periods of low flow (and therefore low water availability). Utilising higher flows in surface waterbodies to offset the shortage of water for irrigation during periods of low flow is an efficient and effective water management mechanism. The abstraction of water during periods of higher flow and the placement of this water into storage have been enabled for some time in Marlborough through Class C water permits. This regime continues under the reviewed resource management framework. It will assist water users to manage water shortages in a limit-based management regime, especially in response to the effect of any suspension of Class A or Class B water permits in accordance with other provisions in the MEP. “Higher flows” will be defined by rules which will set minimum flows below which water cannot be taken for storage through Class C water permits. [R] Policy 5.8.3 – Water may be stored at times other than those specified in Policy 5.8.2 to provide water users with greater flexibility to manage water use on-site, provided that the rate of take does not exceed the authorised daily rate of take for irrigation purposes. Although an explicit C class exists to facilitate access to water for storage purposes under the circumstances set out in Policy 5.8.2, taking water allocated under another class for storage can also be efficient. For example, some rivers experience periods of high turbidity that can make run-of-the-river abstraction particularly difficult due to the effect on irrigation distribution systems. The storage of water during the irrigation season provides for a back-up supply of irrigation water when access to Class C water may otherwise be restricted or where no Class C has been established. There may also be short-term peaks in flow over the irrigation season in response to rainfall events that, while not sufficient to reactivate access to Class C, still create an opportunity to store water. This policy recognises these circumstances by enabling the storage of Class A or Class B water. The policy also recognises that Class A and Class B were primarily created to enable access to water as instantaneous takes. Significant abstraction of water over the irrigation season for storage purposes has the potential to adversely affect the reliability of existing takes of water (by drawing down river flow/aquifer level at a faster rate than would otherwise have been the case). 5 – 27