The need to adapt highlighted again

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

New Zealand has just got another tough lesson in the necessity of investing wisely and heavily in climate change adaptation, with our biggest city in a state of emergency and widespread chaos after record rainfall yesterday caused raging floodwaters, slips and evacuations.

It seems that four people have lost their lives in the deluge. Two bodies have been recovered from floodwaters in Wairau Valley on the North Shore and two other people are missing — one who was swept away in floodwaters in Onewhero, south of Auckland, and another after a landslide brought down a house in Remuera.

Auckland Airport is flooded and was closed until at least midday. Many major roads and highways around the city were closed due to flooding, with State Highway 1 closed or restricted in eight places this morning.

There was some heavy rain again this morning and more big dumps can be expected in the region over the next five days.

The torrential rain yesterday was unprecedented — 249mm fell in the 24 hours to 1am, 87mm more than the previous record of 161.8mm. More than 60mm of rain fell in just one hour mid-afternoon.

Increasing stormwater drainage capacity and putting other protections in place to deal with this sort of flooding is a major challenge but one we have to rise to.

As in areas throughout the country, nine of which have been identified in this region, we also have to rethink where some houses have been built — and stop allowing developments in unmitigated flood-prone areas.

Former Auckland councillor and National's Upper Harbour candidate this year Cameron Brewer said this morning that Auckland Council had been too permissive, allowing developers to sub-divide and build in flood-prone areas.

“We were all promised the Unitary Plan was more about going up than out, but in the past few years it has been mostly ‘greenfields' development on the outskirts of Auckland, and some of it in totally unsuitable locations,” he said. “In 2009 the regional council published some amazing fine-tooth mapping of the entire region identifying rapid flood hazard areas. Alarmingly, in the intervening years some well-identified risk areas have been built on and in this latest event many sadly endured flash flooding.”

As the Government reconsiders its priorities over the coming weeks, it must keep resourcing for resilience and adaptation to climate change at the top of its agenda.