Silt dust ‘nightmare’ for Waiapu Valley

Waiapu River valley residents are being driven out of their homes this summer by silt dust. Picture by Graeme Atkins

Some Waiapu River valley residents are being driven from their homes this summer as an unprecedented amount of silt, generated by storms over the past two years, still suffocates the local landscape.

Dust from those silt deposits is constantly being whipped up by ongoing hot, windy weather — a “nightmare” for which there seems to be “no end in sight”, resident and longtime conservationist Graeme Atkins says.

Mr Atkins wrote about the issue in a public post to his Facebook page, saying the dust on his whānau’s side of the lower Waiapu River valley has been unbearable for days.

“(The) nor’wester — our most hated wind at this time of the year,” he wrote.

“Futile doing anything outdoors or indoors for that matter — too hot with the windows shut to keep the dust out. Seal the house up and head south to Tokomaru Bay and wait for the wind to abate.”

However, residents were finally getting some respite with the southerly change of the last couple of days.

Mr Atkins says the dust is a “terrible legacy of historical poor land-use choices”.