Watch NZH Local Focus: Tongariro river erosion worries locals

Over the last eight months, Turangi residents have watched these Tongariro River banks near the Kohineheke Reserve slip away.

Denis Greenslade fishes on the riverbed often. He has been monitoring the banks - and says over the last six to twelve months the bank has eroded "seven or eight meters."

"What's happening is the pressure is coming from this southern bank and it's just undermining this area completely, the area across here used to be relatively straight."

And it's a concern because where the erosion is occurring is commonly used by anglers, visitors, and locals - on foot and in vehicles.

"It's now got to the stage where it's doing a lot of damage further down the river to the fishery - all the sediment is settling further down and filling what were natural holes for the fish, and it's presenting a health and safety issue," Mr Greenslade says.

"The water is undercutting the bank. If someone falls in there, in flood conditions like this, they're gone, you know next thing we've got a body in the lake," he says.

Ngati Turangitukua is Tangata Whenua of the riverbed in concerns. Along with Waikato Regional Council, Department of Conservation and Taupo District Council they're developing a plan to manage the issue.

Waikato Regional Council's acting manager for Lake Taupo and the upper Waikato, Julie Beaufill says the erosion issue is quite common along the river and "there's quite a fall from where the river bed is down to the lake".

"What we would like to do is to move some of the gravel that is sitting in the bed of the river around to take the pressure of around those erosion areas, so we have been working with landowners in that spot to find some sort of solution to that effect."

She says people need to take personal responsibility because there are some safety issues as the river changes course over time.

"What the river is trying to do is trying to find its natural channel and rivers will naturally move around quite a bit."

Access to the river could be a problem, but local fisherman, Stephen De Malmanche says the fish are not affected by the increased silt in the water from the banks.

"River erosion won't affect the fish because they are designed to handle silt, so dirty water they can handle, extreme circumstances with lots of silt in the water their gills may block up but a lot of the time but a lot of the time they will be okay," Mr De Malmanche says.

Given the weather, it's not likely work to manage the erosion will begin until closer to the end of the year.

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