Mo ngā awa te aroha, he waiaroha — For the love of rivers
The Waitaha on the West Coast is an iconic source-to-sea wilderness river. Westpower has a run-of-river scheme with a weir at the entrance of Morgan Gorge.
The “shark fins” of Morgan Gorge on the Waitaha River
Last updated: June 2026.
The scheme was granted Fast-track approval in April 2026. Whitewater NZ has neither opposed nor endorsed it. In the months ahead of the decision, we negotiated an agreement with Westpower that secures recreational protections and compensation for the impact on paddling, in exchange for remaining neutral on the scheme itself. Wider conservation and recreation groups have opposed the project and signalled possible legal action.
In exchange for a neutral stance, the agreement commits Westpower to:
If the project had been declined, the agreement fell away, and we lost nothing. The obligations are legally binding, and they run from Westpower to us, not the other way around.
Whitewater NZ opposed this scheme from 2015 until it was declined in 2019, when the Minister cited the impact on recreational kayaking. The situation then changed. The project was fast-tracked under a law designed to limit opposition. The national-led coalition government, iwi, and West Coast communities signalled support, and the avenues for legal challenge narrowed sharply. Our legal advice was that a project at this stage is very hard to stop.
In that setting, a negotiated agreement delivers something opposition alone could not: enforceable protections for paddlers if the scheme proceeds. This is compensation for recreational impact, not a partnership or an endorsement. It is consistent with the approach we have taken with other hydro operators, including Genesis, Manawa, Contact and KCE when opportunities to maintain free-flowing rivers became severely limited, if not impossible. Despite the necessity of this approach, ensuring rivers remain free-flowing will always be a primary concern for WWNZ.
We are holding Westpower to the agreement overseeing that the development remains compliant with the approved consent as it progresses, alongside providing input on weir design and safety. Once developed, WWNZ will ensure that the no-take days are scheduled with local community interests in mind and secure the published flow data. We remain independent of the project and will watch delivery closely.
For the full background and our reasoning at the time of the agreement, see our original update post (May 29, 2025).
