‘It will wipe out this village’ - Pōrangahau fears for council’s stopbank proposal

By Alexa Cook of RNZ

The Hawke’s Bay village of Pōrangahau fears a plan to build stopbanks along its river will wipe out the town in future floods and fail to protect the marae.

Residents are urging the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council to take heed of a recent damning report into its failings during Cyclone Gabrielle - which recommended better engagement with local communities.

Pōrangahau is the only remaining area still awaiting council decisions on flood protections following the cyclone and some residents feel they have been forgotten about.

About 35 homes, the marae, kaumātua housing, and the urupā all flooded when the river burst its banks in February 2023.

While the community rallied together and donations flooded in, local wahine Piri Galbraith said many people felt the authorities’ response was lacking.

“On the bigger scale, government agencies ... we were absolutely forgotten about. Even now there are a few homes not finished,” she said.

The village is the only area in Hawke’s Bay still in Category 2A, because the regional council has yet to decide what flood protection will be built, but the proposal is for stopbanks.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty and we don’t want to read 20-page reports ... come and tell us to our face. We’re getting reports from people who have no idea where Pōrangahau is or what it is.

“If there is a burst in the stopbank it will wipe out this village - which is a huge concern,” she said.

Tania Nicholas and Orlando MacDonald outside their cyclone damaged home. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook

Tania Nicholas and her husband Orlando MacDonald are still rebuilding their house, and the fresh paint is a welcome smell after 17 long months of cleaning and construction.

“Just the way the community has come together makes you feel so proud to be living here and to have the neighbours that you do,” said Nicholas.

Since the cyclone, the family-of-four has been living out of a basket, moving eight times between five houses and are now living in a cabin in the back yard.

After 17 months of hard work, Tania and Orlando's home is nearly finished. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook

Down the road, Galbraith’s father Doc Ferris is worried that the proposed stopbanks don’t protect the marae and kaumātua flats.

“I’ll put it very bluntly, they’re not interested in our marae or our kaumātua flats.

“There are those that say well you can move the marae, and move the kaumātua flats - well wait on, that marae has been there for about 250 years,” he said.

Doc and his brother-in-law Paul Sciascia are among those backing an alternative proposal from local contractor Steve Galbraith - which they say would protect their marae.

Rongomaraeroa Marae in Pōrangahau, which the regional council is proposing to lift up for flood protection. Photo / RNZ, Alexa Cook

“We’ve got a plan in there now we believe, as locals, is almost picture perfect,” Sciascia said.

Regional council chief executive Nic Peet told RNZ it was deep into the detailed design work for stopbanks - but it was a complex and technical situation because the village was on one side of the river, but the marae was on the opposite bank.

“Protection to one side or the other is possible, protection to both sides actually makes the situation more dangerous,” he said.

The regional council confirmed it had the local proposal, and was considering it.

“We’re open to looking at all options that get put forward and making sure they’ve been really well considered,” Peet said.

But Mayor Alex Walker was calling on the regional council to do more.

“I can feel the unease on how all sorts of things will feed into the decision about stopbanks. It’s complex and inter-generational so we have to be really really focused on having lots of conversations, and there are a lot more we could have - that’s what I’m asking regional council to help with - more intentional local conversations and structures,” she said.

Something Ferris and Sciascia were desperate to see.

“They [the council] should come and sort things out with the locals. Sure, their science counts, but the locals know where the water goes to, where and why it goes to where it does. They’ve been watching it come at them for years,” Sciascia said.