A multi-million dollar irrigation scheme proposed for Central Otago is in its final design stage.
The Tarras Community Irrigation Scheme has received a Government grant of $278,000 to help fund the design and management costs.
The scheme aims to pump water from the Clutha River to more than 7500 hectares of farmland in the Tarras district and provide water for domestic and firefighting use.
Tarras Water chairman Peter Jolly says the scheme is estimated to cost between $33 million and $36 million.
Mr Jolly says the irrigation scheme would allow land currently restricted mainly to sheep farming to be used for cropping, lamb finishing, horticulture and wine production.
He says the final costings are essential to stakeholder investment, and another prospectus will be issued, probably later in the year. If the uptake is similar to that of the first prospectus, the scheme will go ahead, he says.
He says work on it could begin as early as April next year.
