The Acton Irrigation Scheme was completed in 2011. The scheme was built as an open race expansion of the existing Ashburton District Council stock water races in the Rakaia Pendarves area.
The scheme delivers 3 m3/s of Rakaia Band 4 irrigation water in addition to 630 l/s of stock water. Irrigation water permits are held by Barrhill Chertsey Irrigation Limited, while stock water permits are held by Ashburton District Council.
The Acton scheme is a farmer-owned cooperative (Acton Farmers Irrigation Cooperative or AFIC), with 57 shareholder farmers and governed by an elected Board of farmer directors. A total of 3,000 l/s is supplied. One share equates to 1 l/s. The gross area of farms supplied is 17,000 ha, of which only about 30% is irrigated with scheme water. Operation of the scheme is currently contracted to a private scheme operator.
Acton Irrigation Scheme has approximately 79 km of distribution, which includes 67 km of open race and 12 km of pipe. The scheme has a command area of approximately 30,000 ha, while only 5,000 — 6,000 ha is irrigated with scheme water. Most farms use scheme water to supplement groundwater supplies.
This project involves upgrading a section of the network on Mainwarings Rd to a pipeline. The primary purpose is to reduce leakage losses currently experienced, improve the delivery level of service and for some partial pressurisation to be achieved.
The Glass reinforced pipe and fittings were manufactured by Superlit, supplied in full and on time from Turkey. Paul Smith Earthmoving Ltd chose to partner with Hynds Irrigation in November 2018 and have been extremely impressed with the professional, collaborative and innovative teamwork of the Hynds Irrigation team.
Project
Acton Irrigation Scheme
Client
Paul Smith Earthmoving Ltd
Location
Mainwarings Road, Rakaia
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