Water activists in Christchurch are concerned after a controversial Chinese water bottling company revealed plans to build a second factory in the region.
Cloud Ocean Water has bought a block of land in Belfast near its existing site and says the new bottling plant would employ 200 workers.
The community group seeking to overturn the company's water consents is surprised at the expansion plans.
"It may be part of a strategy of theirs that to spend so much money and take it so far that they're gambling on the fact that the court may well not overturn the consents if it finds they have been wrongly issued," Aotearoa Water Action's Peter Richardson said.
Cloud Ocean has appealed a high court ruling that old industrial consents do not allow for large-scale water bottling operations.
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