Members of the public are about to get their first look at some of the detail behind Environment Waikato’s Project Watershed.

The Project is designed to come up with a fair and equitable funding vehicle for soil conservation, flood protection and river management works in the Waikato and Waipa River systems.

Four page newsletters being inserted into community newspapers this month give indicative costs for the type of work envisaged for the six management zones which come under the Project. To make the information more relevant to local communities, four versions of the newsletter have been produced for each affected area.

Environment Waikato chairman Neil Clarke says Project Watershed is about deciding what river management, soil erosion and flood protection works will be carried out in the Waikato/Waipa River catchments. The newsletters include the names of local liaison committee members as well as local councillors and staff members working on Project Watershed who can be contacted for further information.

“It is important to stress that this is an information-sharing exercise. A formal public consultation programme will be carried out next year, but we hope that public input at this time will enable us to formulate draft management plans which are in line with public thinking.”

More copies of the newsletters are available from Environment Waikato.