Horizons Regional Council secures $4.2 million for flood planning across the region

Damage around the Pohangina River following Cyclone Gabrielle.

Horizons Regional Council is receiving $4.2 million of Government funding for flood planning across the region, which will include targeted messaging for Whanganui’s Anzac Parade residents.

The Local Government Flood Resilience Co-Investment Fund has allocated $3.645m to Horizons for flood forecasting and communications resilience; the remaining funds will be made up through Horizons’ 2024-34 Long Term Plan.

A further $640,000 of Government co-funding for a $1.2m programme will be put towards reducing the risk for people and houses in the Pohangina-Ōroua catchment.

Horizons group manager of catchment operations Dr Jon Roygard said Horizons was currently working with Whanganui District Council to improve communication channels during a flooding event.

“It’s one of those things we’re wanting to be prepared for.”

He said it was brilliant that Horizons had received “everything they asked for” in the two funding package applications.

“It also relieves some of the financial burden on ratepayers who have already contributed over $9m to Cyclone Gabrielle repairs, plus what they’ve spent privately as well.”

Horizons was working on getting some detailed messaging out to the Anzac Parade community, he said.

“Our focus for this programme is on communicating with people about what to do in an emergency event should there be flooding or a request to evacuate, and [ensuring] that people have clear information and are prepared for that.”

In 2015, significant flooding caused 400 residents to be evacuated from their homes across Whanganui and left extensive damage to properties along Anzac Parade.

Horizons was ensuring flood modelling through Whanganui was “up to date and as accurate as possible”, he said.

“There is a small amount of infrastructure build that we will do - there are pieces like ensuring that our radio network towers have back-up power during an event so, should the power go out, they’ll have a longer period of time [in which] they’ll keep running.”

Horizons was working to make sure pump stations continued to operate in a power outage.

“It will also include a contribution to an options assessment for flood protection at Saddle Rd, and will establish a stopbank at Tōtara Reserve to protect the grounds and surrounding road infrastructure.”

There would also be updated rainfall monitoring sites so flood models could capture information to be matched with the weather forecast.

“We believe the flood action plan we have is a good one, and we have put that into action in the past. This flood resilience package helps us ensure our network communications stay up for longer.”

The Local Government Flood Resilience Co-Investment Fund was set up to increase resilience to the impacts of climate change and assist with Cyclone Gabrielle recovery.

The work involved with the Horizons flood funding packages will be completed by June 2025.

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.