Flood protection in Hawke’s Bay: Plenty done, plenty to come - Hinewai Ormsby

Hinewai Ormsby with Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst at press conference after flooding in Wairoa. Photo / Paul Taylor

OPINION

A commonly known whakatauki or proverb, “he waka eke noa”, embodies that we are all in this together and reflects the idea of moving forward collectively and collaboratively, even so in the face of dramatic change and re-imagination.

Which is the way I think about the programme of work we are progressing to restore, enhance and reimagine our flood risk management systems so crucial to our way of life here in Te Matau a Māui Hawke’s Bay.

The programme doesn’t just focus on enhancing what we have now, but it looks towards what will be crucial to our future regional prosperity.

Last week it was great to celebrate the completion of the protection of the main gas pipeline to Hastings in the Makaretu River in Central Hawke’s Bay.

Cyclone Gabrielle had heavily damaged the Makaretu riverbank near Takapau and State Highway 50, shifting the river channel, undercutting the bank, and threatening the Firstgas pipeline.

Our work protects the pipeline – a critical piece of energy infrastructure for our region. This milestone came hard on the heels of completing restoration of the Walker Rd stopbank near Waipawa, critical to helping protect the township from flooding in an extreme weather event.

We have also recently worked with Wairoa District Council and Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa to get the beach crest at the Wairoa River bar lowered and find locations for river-monitoring cameras – both immediate steps we have taken to reduce the risks of Wairoa township flooding, now we know we cannot rely on opening the bar to do that.

Other flood mitigation work currently under way across the region:

- We have new cameras and monitoring systems to be installed across our river network.

- All of our North Island Weather Event major flood protection works are in the design stage and we are talking about them with landowners and mana whenua in those communities that were most affected by the cyclone. Engineers, geotech specialists, ecologists, and cultural and local experts are all providing their knowledge and input as well.

- Our regional planning committee, through its work on the upcoming Regional Planning Statement, is focused on new planning tools that will help ensure there is clear direction about the requirements for local plans to take account of natural hazards.

All this work is part of the critical first tranche of work to build more flood resilience across Hawke’s Bay Te Matau a Māui which we expect to be completed by the end of 2025 calendar year.

It builds on the 6km of stopbank breaches already repaired and 36km of weakened stopbanks that have been strengthened post-cyclone.

The next stage will involve working together with communities to decide how best to protect people and property in the face of climate change delivering potentially more frequent and more severe weather events.

Regional council cannot do this alone - it’s essential we do it together with our communities, local councils, mana whenua, infrastructure owners, and business owners to reimagine our region’s flood risk management approaches and systems using our combined knowledge expertise and perspectives.

How can you help? Discussions about this will be through a community process we expect to kick off early next year. Your participation will be vital in shaping the future of our region and I encourage you to get involved.

Let’s work together to ensure a safer and more resilient Hawke’s Bay.