The Central Otago District Council will go ahead with its assessment of the district water resource from an economic and social perspective, with $10,000 being set aside for the project.
At this week's Central Otago District Council district development committee meeting councillors were asked to agree to a further $30,000 for detailed modelling, but they would not commit to the spending until the assessment was done.
Cr Tony Lepper was concerned that the council would have to "pay water people" for the advice it would need if the council became involved in water infrastructure.
Cr Gordon Stewart did not want to see the council setting up a department to look into water. He believed it would be better off giving small amounts to water groups which wanted to set up and then let vested interests keep them going.
"We're better off giving money to groups like the Tarras [community water] group rather than forming another department which would see staff just multiply and multiply," he said.
A council delegation recently visited five local authorities and other private institutions looking at water resources and irrigation to see if the CODC should become involved in water infrastructure investment.
