Govt approves $8.9 million in wake of severe weather events

Flooding in Dargaville after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Craig Clement

The Government says it is showing its commitment to better protecting Northland’s smaller communities from severe weather events with a $8.9 million funding boost.

February was a hard month for Northland as Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread flooding and destruction, particularly in remote parts of the Far North and across Kaipara. As of August 10, 13 households in Northland displaced by the cyclone remained in temporary accommodation. Overall, 416 were still displaced nationally.

And as the region went into recovery mode, Kaipara was hit again weeks later when around 250 millimetres of rain fell in just three hours, submerging Mangawhai and causing more slips and damage to properties and roads.

The Government yesterday announced it has approved $8.9m of funding it claims will boost resilience and greatly reduce the risk of major flood damage in Northland.

The bulk of it, $4.2m, will go toward reducing the risk of flooding in Kawakawa, Ōtiria-Moerewa, Kāeo, Matangirau, Whirinaki, Punaruku, and include marae often flooded or at risk of flooding.

The Government said councils, tāngata whenua and communities in these six rohe will work together to identify specific work programmes to build flood resilience for these communities.

The remaining sum will be spread across projects that include removing fallen and at-risk trees from flood-risk rivers, stormwater upgrades, stabilising work, stopbank repairs and early warning systems.

Of the funding, $2.1m has been allocated to the removal of trees carried out by Ngā Manga Atawhai, which turns recovered trees into firewood for eligible in-need families. Bund improvement at the Dargaville Wastewater Treatment Plant will receive $650,000; $500,000 will go toward Dargaville stopbank repairs; and another $500,000 to stormwater upgrades in Robert St, Mangawhai.

Awakino Railway embankment stabilisation work will receive a $400,000 boost, and flood intelligence and early warning systems for all three district councils in Northland will be provided $560,000 of funding.

Tai Tokerau MP and Labour party deputy leader Kelvin Davis said the funding was on top of other monetary allocations already announced by the Government to help the country recover from severe weather events, but was specifically focused on smaller and more remote communities to ensure work to mitigate flood risks are carried out.

“I think it shows the Government’s commitment to helping not just the big centres, but also that we haven’t forgotten the smaller remote communities and areas ... in time there’ll be [more] to pre-emptively protect communities.”

The boost to their resilience is not set to be fleeting, Davis indicated.

“As we have more weather events, which we are going to have, there’ll be other communities where a downpour hits them and hello, we see that they’re exposed.

“There’ll need to be more over time for all communities to mitigate the risk to them all, but these communities have been hit in the past, so we’re just trying to help them in the first tranche.”

When asked about how long it has taken the Government to assist in the recovery of smaller communities, Davis acknowledged it has taken a while, but said councils and Government were taken by surprise “to an extent” by Cyclone Gabrielle.

“I think in the future, things will be a lot speedier because we now have the system set up ... you have to give criteria for money, you can’t just throw money into the air and hope that people will make the right choices.”