Opinion: Stratford Mayor Neil Volzke says floods are a reminder to be prepared

Slavko Snjegota outside his house at 208 Lake Rd, Belmont, as heavy rain hits Auckland causing widespread flooding. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Last week’s floods in Auckland, Coromandel and Northland have dominated the news with some truly shocking television footage of the damage to properties in those regions.

The accompanying stories of the trauma and mayhem for the people in those places showed just how vulnerable we all are when Mother Nature decides to go rogue with the weather. As always, our hearts go out to people who find themselves caught up in these emergency situations. Kiwis are great when it comes to pitching in and helping those in need and this has been very evident in Auckland, where many residents have been displaced from their homes.

As the Civil Defence response moves into recovery mode and in the aftermath of the flooding, Mayor Wayne Brown has announced a broad ranging investigation that will no doubt highlight some shortfalls for which he will be roasted, but will also hopefully identify some learnings that will help us in the future.

It’s been said many times before, but these extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more devastating. It seems that in some regions, we haven’t even fixed up the damage from previous events and then we have another. The big question is, what can we do to prevent damage and better manage future extreme weather events.

I saw a television interview with an extremely agitated victim of the flooding who was demanding that “council should do something about it”. I felt for him and I know he was stressed to the max, but after scratching my head for a moment, I didn’t really come up with an easy answer as to what the council should do. With the unbelievable amount of rain that fell so quickly, I doubt whether it would have made much difference how large stormwater pipes were or how deep creek beds were, the problem essentially was that the volume of water was such that a flood was almost inevitable.

Clearly, there is no quick or easy fix to the stormwater problems in our built areas or on our road networks. Solutions are going to be long term and very expensive. No doubt, the experts will argue about how to mitigate flooding effects across the country and specific, bespoke solutions will need to be found for different landscapes. I suspect the over-arching, long-term answer to flood prevention will simply come down to better planning.

This will require a major change in our current thinking and analysis of matters like how we use our land, where do we build houses and other structures, what type of structures should we build, increased capacity stormwater systems, the size of permeable areas on built sites and much, much more.

If the human grief associated with these weather events doesn’t drive change, then the economic consequences certainly will. Looking to the future, I doubt that insurers, banks, property owners, councils, government and other agencies are not going to sit idle, waiting for the next event, while still licking their wounds from the cost of the previous event.

It is a nonsense and non-sustainable practice to accept that “we will just have to put up with these events” (a comment I heard this week) and collectively foot the bill for the damage done. Change is needed and our future planning rules will need to have a much higher focus on the effects of climate change and the risks associated with extreme weather events.