Editorial: Projects like Paihia breakwater dead in water without local support

Cyclone Gabrielle battered Paihia's waterfront with 11m waves, closing the highway - now Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says protection with breakwaters is needed. Photo / Peter de Graaf

EDITORIAL

When Bay of Islands local Brad Windust heard that Regional Development Minister Shane Jones wants to resurrect a controversial Paihia breakwater project, his response was one of dismay.

“We’ve been here, we said ‘no’ and the politicians need to listen to our community,” Windust said.

For the town of Paihia - which has a permanent population of about 1700 in non-summer times - it would’ve felt like the whole town did say no to the project, with more than 4000 signing a petition in 2021 to stop the Paihia seawalls.

The project includes four separated sea walls around Motumaire Island, the restoration of Horotutu Beach and possible seafloor dredging.

It was backed by Jones in 2020 with $8 million from the Government’s Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund, along with $5.8 million from Far North District Council.

Locals were concerned the seawalls would be ugly and change the feel of the well-known area, called the Bay of Islands - not the Bay of Breakwaters - for a reason.

They also worried the seawalls would create a “rat highway” to Motumaire - a wāhi tapu - change sand drift patterns and trigger erosion in nearby beaches.

Ultimately, escalating costs forced the council to can the project in 2022, no doubt also persuaded by the public uprising against the proposal.

And it was not the first time the community had opposed the breakwaters.

Iwi took the matter to the Environment Court, concerned that the breakwaters, originally designed to be connected to Motumaire and Kuia Rongouru islands, could affect marine life and encourage more people to kayak to Motumaire.

An artist’s impression of the 2020 Paihia breakwater and foreshore redevelopment plan shows four separated breakwaters and a redeveloped beach. Image / Far North Holdings

The plans were altered and consent finally granted in 2010 but the delay was a fatal blow for the project, pushing it into the cold waters of the Global Financial Crisis that saw it put on ice for the first time.

For Jones, he sees the project as essential to help protect Paihia’s wharf, main road and waterfront businesses from wild weather.

“It’s an example where the resilience can be improved and we’re going to have to adapt to the fact that volatile weather is impacting the Bay of Islands.”

In some ways, he is right.

After a year of unprecedented storms including Cyclone Hale and Cyclone Gabrielle, and global temperatures officially breaking all records, climate change is having an impact that even New Zealand First politicians can’t deny.

All places in New Zealand - but especially Northland’s waterfront towns - need to urgently start having some uncomfortable conversations about how the impacts of climate change will be prepared for and mitigated.

But the important thing Jones needs to remember is that these must be conversations with the community, including with local residents, iwi, hapū and businesses.

Not only can the community share their on-the-ground knowledge, they are also the ones who will have to decide what sacrifices they are prepared to make to ensure future resilience.

Climate change mitigation options can include managed retreat of the waterfront, soft protection like planting and beach restoration, to raising key infrastructure like roads.

In the case of Paihia, Windust said the local community had never been asked to share its thoughts; the Paihia breakwater project had been just bulldozed through.

And when projects are bulldozed, people are suspicious of what else will be pushed through - such as a floating wave attenuator, which cuts down wave energy, and an associated marina, both of which were included in the original plans for Paihia breakwater.

In the face of climate change, volatile weather and sea level rise, a bulldozer on its own will simply be washed away. But a community holding hands in unity will surely be able to stand strong.