Kirsten Wise: Napier's flood resilience a combined effort

Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise, pictured during last year's flooding press conference, is reflecting on the anniversary of the deluge that affected much of the city last year. Photo / NZME

Opinion

At 3pm on Friday afternoon last week, October 29, it started raining hard. We were getting ready for the Civic Awards ceremony that night and working through the ramifications of the Three Waters reform announcement.

For our staff, our water team especially, the preparations had begun earlier the previous day when the weather watch was issued.

Weather watches and warnings, however, are just an indication of what's to come. Our water team constantly monitor water use, pump stations and containment cells, and as the weather changes, they put in place the plans we have prepared for big weather events.

All heavy rain is a stark reminder of a year ago when we all went through the November flood. Anyone in the organisation with an infrastructure or Civil Defence role is preparing for whatever might come next if they were called out to help the community.
The staff at the depot had been out in the streets throughout the days before, clearing drains and gully traps.

Making sure our own gutters at home were clear of leaves and debris was also top of mind. We've learnt it's little and large things that make the difference when big weather is heading our way.

It's a hard thing to hear but our stormwater system works as it was designed to do. It's just that the job it was meant to do has changed. Our environment, built and natural, has changed. Our population and industry size and scale have changed.

So, the stormwater assets and network we rely on when storms hit would work great if it were 1960. But we have more houses - importantly, that means more concrete and roofs – and more pressure on our water infrastructure.

When it rains and council staff are running through their processes, people call me, text and email me, worried about their houses, their gardens, their roads and neighbourhoods.

As a community we are hyper-aware now of what big weather can mean. That's a good thing. All of us do need to be actively thinking about and changing the way we do things, because weather events like the November flood will happen more often.

We need to plan for it, build with this changing environment in mind, do things and make changes that make our community more resilient. When floods happen we want to minimise the damage. They will happen, we can't stop that, but we can do things that mean the damage won't be as great.

Across the board, those little and large actions are down to all of us. At home, you can keep your gutters clean and the culverts and drains outside your house clear. At the council, we are running CCTV cameras down our pipe network checking for debris and breaks, we are jetting and cleaning the whole 241km network.

We are changing rules, regulations and guidelines to make sure new builds manage stormwater. Our long-term plan and our draft district plan are full of projects and initiatives that will make our city more resilient to the effects of climate change, including changing the way development is happening. We're investing just under $116 million in stormwater alone in our long-term plan (up 256 per cent on the last plan).

At home, you can think about how to use permeable surfaces that absorb water, rather than impermeable surfaces where water sheets off and ends up further downstream. You can clear the sumps outside your house from leaves and litter. There are over 6000 sumps in Napier and 60 water staff at the council. We can't be everywhere, all the time.

Understanding what is and what isn't part of the stormwater network is important too. During the November flood, rubber-neckers made the damage worse by driving on flooded roads, sending their bow wave into homes and shops, knocking over fences. Napier is designed so that roads are a part of the stormwater network.

Roads and some ponds are actually rainwater containment sites. Waterways are supposed to flood, so water doesn't enter properties. Keeping them clean and clear, therefore, is down to all of us understanding their importance and being guardians of them.

We have work to do at the council to make sure our community can stand up to floods. Part of that is raising the awareness in the community of their role and responsibility to be part of building that resilience.

It's a team effort. That means working closely with partner agencies and other councils in Hawke's Bay. It means lending a hand with Civil Defence obligations, for many of our staff stepping outside their day-to-day role and getting stuck in to help out. It's been a year since the flood, and some are still living with the damage it caused.

For all of us, we need to use the flood as an opportunity to adapt to the changing environment around us, and to respond as best we can to whatever heads our way.

- Kirsten Wise is Mayor of Napier