Regional council chairman Peter Haddock said the suggestion raised in some reports of abandoning the Waiho Flat to the river in order to protect Franz Josef township, was not clear-cut and the $24m of floodwalls was a good medium-term solution to buy the whole area some time.
“It’s a very difficult situation at Franz because the experts are saying that the river should be let go to the south. Obviously there is a lot of area it can go to, to the south,” Haddock said.
“At the end of the day the council do need to lead this and convince the Government one way or another.”
He noted significant investment in Waiho Flat over a long time.
“Do you just walk away from it? I think you should buy one more round of protection. It gives those people certainty but it also signals to those people that is the end of that. I think we’ve got to be clear to the people.”
Haddock said he personally felt the fact the Government had already allocated its share towards the $24m co-funded Waiho scheme suggested it recognised the value of not abandoning it yet.
“(The funding) is ring-fenced but it would never go anywhere towards buying out the farmers or remove the (stopbanks) as the experts proposed.”
The other factor was the future of State Highway 6, which ran several kilometres across the top of Waiho Flat before climbing over the Fox Hills.
Haddock said he had heard figures “in excess of $100m” to move the road.
Remediation of the old Franz Josef rubbish dump - close to the river on the south bank - alone could cost a further $150m, he said.
Those now living on the flat were left “all in abeyance” and based on what river experts recommended, the Government needed to fund a solution.
Meantime, the $24m scheme could give people some certainty for decades, but with a proviso.
“All we’re doing is buying time. Everyone knows that the Waiho has been aggrading by 300mm a year, or thereabouts. It will beat us eventually but if we can buy 20 to 25 years and see what happens, it would be a cheap investment.”
Local experience held that the build-up of the Waiho riverbed and the glacier retreat went in a cycle of about 25 years. This fitted with the life expectancy of the $24m scheme.
At the same time, a proper economic benefit analysis of the Waiho Flat area in conjunction with the wider Franz Josef economy was needed.
Addressing the strategic importance of the assets on the flat, such as the Franz Josef aerodrome, and the economic contribution of farms and businesses to the area needed to be understood, including the context of any Alpine Fault rupture.
“I think we should be leading that to the Government. The airport is quite important strategically as an emergency resource ... I think our council should be leading that.”
O’Connor said while the Government had put up the stalled $24m Waiho River scheme, its prime focus was human safety in the main Franz Josef township area given visitors to the area were unaware of the risk to their safety.
“Human safety is always a priority, which is the issue with the Waiho.”
- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
