Wild rivers: Saving the Mokihinui

Without a law change, wild rivers such as the Mokihinui won’t be sufficiently protected from hydroelectricity development.

By Rebecca Macfie In Ecologic

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9th June, 2012

After a $20 million-plus power struggle between the forces of big hydro and the defenders of conservation, the wild Mokihinui River is safe for now, but a major new report reveals it remains at risk of future development. Meridian Energy’s decision to can its scheme to build an 85m dam that would have inundated hundreds of hectares of untouched West Coast forest ended a fiveyear battle between the power company and the Department of Conservation (DoC), Forest & Bird and Whitewater NZ. Meridian was granted resource consent to build the dam in 2010, but its opponents appealed and the issue ...

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