There is some work still to be done by the Ashburton Water Zone Committee to finalise its action plan budget.
The committee has been allocated $50,000 by Environment Canterbury to support its plan initiatives in this financial year, ending June 30.
A workshop on the action plan budget allocation was held before its public meeting on Tuesday, but those in attendance were unable to finalise the plan.
“It’s been agreed we need to do a little bit more work on our strategy so we are going to set up some more workshops in February,” ECan zone facilitator Dave Moore said.
“We need to have everything pretty much in place by the end of April so we can make sure we have all our funding agreements and all our administration done to get it in by the end of the financial year.”
The committee provided significant investment to support the establishment of the Mid Canterbury Catchment Collective last year which it stated “had paid huge dividends and that the MCCC is now quite self-sufficient”.
This year the committee was looking to focus on Ōtūwharekai/Ashburton Lakes, river margins, mahinga kai and community engagement/education, while also maintaining some momentum with Wakanui hāpua.
Hekeao/Hinds Water Enhancement Trust (HHWET) have submitted a biodiversity funding request towards its planned native planting and maintenance at NRR1 (South Hinds) and MAR17 (Lennies Road) sites.
The zone committee has tabled the request and will address it once it has finalised its action plan budget.
The committee is jointly organising Ōtūwharekai Open Day on February 25 with the Ōtūwharekai Working Group to share the work under way to address water quality issues within the Ashburton lakes and give people the chance to ask questions and learn more.

• Jonathan Leask