Overcoming water ordering challenges facing Irrigation Schemes
Rakaia Irrigation Limited is a group of farmers bordering the Rakia River in Canterbury. They draw water from the Rakaia River for normal irrigation purposes, but run into difficulties when the river goes on restriction.
This generally occurs during the dry, hot summer season limiting farmers from taking consented water. RIL management negotiated with Trustpower to use Lake Coleridge as a storage facility, (along with BCI and CPW); it meant farmers in the group could use water in a similar way to drawing down on an investment bank account. For that, they needed an effective water ordering system in place - and the Watermetrics Water Ordering service was the solution of choice.
Once farmers are notified by the Regional Council that river restrictions are in place, they have the option to use the Water Ordering service (smart phone and web portal) to order supplementary water. Orders are aggregated daily, then submitted to Trustpower, who then make the decision of whether to accept the order or not. If it's accepted, ordered water is released into the Rakaia River, meaning farmers can take the ordered for irrigation without breaching their consents.
Farmers on the Rakaia Irrigation scheme are then enabled to continue to irrigate during the growing season. Because the group has made the water ordering service available to its members, the farmers have surety around water availability when the river runs low thus protecting their ability to farm.
The Waimakariri Irrigation Limited scheme has approximately 44,000 hectares between the Waimakariri and Ashley rivers. The scheme intake, at the top end of the scheme area, feeds a number of canals delivering water to offtakes for scheme shareholders.
The challenge facing WIL management was collating water orders accurately and ensuring water was delivered to its shareholders. There was considerable stress for the racemen to collate orders, especially when farmers would wait until the last minute to place their water orders via a number of communication methods. In an effort to alleviate this pressure and frustration, and to make ordering more efficient and accurate, the Waimakariri Irrigation Scheme contacted Watermetrics, to discuss deploying the water ordering solution.
It is now into its fourth season.
Like the Rakaia Irrigation farmers, WIL shareholders have access to the web portal, and it means they can:
- Order water in advance
- Set up a recurring orders
- Edit and modify orders
- Pause an order if a rainfall event occurs, restarting it after the rain stops
What this means for the shareholders is increased reliability - they know they can get water when they need it and their orders won't get lost in an outdated system that is stretched to the limit. Not only that, but they can view their water order history, analyse how much they've used, how much they have left, and identify any patterns.
And it's not just the shareholders who reap the benefits. It means a great deal less stress for the racemen, as the process is streamlined and designed so that orders don't get missed. The Watermetrics water ordering interface gives them greater autonomy.
Shareholders receive a notification acknowledging their order, and another when the water is about to be released. This enhanced communication enables greater certainty about when water is about to be used, how much, and in what zone.
The overall benefit is a smoother process that allows easy water ordering for shareholder productivity.
The Lower Waitaki Irrigation scheme is a new Watermetrics customer. They face similar challenges to Waimakariri in that they take water from Borton's Pond, off the Waitaki River, and need to be able to do this in a timely and efficient way, including dealing with last-minute orders. Although the Waitaki River usually flows well, restrictions do happen when shingle banks up at the intake and the full flow of water isn't allowed into the pond. For the scheme management to clear this type of blockage, they need resource consent - which can take a couple of days, is also dependent on weather conditions and availability of staff.
One immediate benefit the service will provide to scheme management is the flexibility to pro-rata water delivery during times when water is restricted due to shingle blockage and clearing. As well, shareholders can order water via their smartphones and have the visibility of historical plus future orders.