Auckland Mayor reveals emergency recovery plan, work continues on Coromandel highway cut off by landslides and cold snap hits the country in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown is threatening to unleash regulatory powers against private landowners who fail to clear streams of obstructions as he launches an emergency recovery plan to help rebuild the city following January’s devastating floods.
The mayor is today announcing a plan to help prepare the city for future weather events.
Among the “simple fixes” he is proposing are for private property owners to clear watercourses running through their properties or face penalties.
Brown told the Herald the penalties that people could face if they failed to comply with orders to clean up streams were still being considered.
“I’ve seen trees and rubbish in open-drain channels that could be simply cleared to reduce flooding risks. Private property owners are responsible for maintaining watercourses running through their property and I expect the council to utilise its regulatory powers actively where trouble spots are identified,” Brown said.
He said some roads had been configured to protect them from flooding but in doing so made flooding of houses worse.
“I would like council to consider lowering roads over constricted drains in these areas to ensure flows go from open channel to open channel.”
The city was hit by record rainfalls during Auckland Anniversary Weekend that forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes due to surging flood waters.
Auckland was then hit by Cyclone Gabrielle in February which left a trail of destruction throughout the North Island and claimed 11 lives.
Hundreds of Auckland properties have been left uninhabitable.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson estimated the storm events could cost the country as much as $13 billion to repair.
Brown apologised after the January 27 floods and acknowledged he was too slow to act.
On February 5, he announced that former police commissioner Mike Bush would lead an inquiry into the official response. The report is due out by this Friday.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. Photo / Michael Craig
“It’s been more than a month since our region was hit by a horrible one-two punch – the Auckland Anniversary floods and then Cyclone Gabrielle and we still have a lot to do to help our hardest hit communities,” Brown said.
Auckland Council chief executive Jim Stabback had been asked to initiate a rapid assessment of flood risk areas to identify simple fixes, then carry out the necessary programme of work in consultation with Watercare and Auckland Transport.
“I have asked every local board to gather ideas from their communities and identify five main trouble spots and fixes in their area, which can be fed back into the process,” Brown said.
“I will then visit those sites with relevant engineers to understand the ideas and progress work.”
The mayor himself has identified several simple fixes which include clearing streams on public and private land, lowering roads over constricted drains and “daylighting” streams - opening up buried watercourses and restoring them to more natural conditions.
“These ideas are not a complete solution, but they are simple, cost-effective and could make a difference,” Brown said.
“We need to prioritise inspecting the neighbourhoods that were worst affected by the recent events, some of which out west have seen flooding many times in recent years.
“It is also obvious that Auckland must get better prepared for severe weather events and I expect to see an improvement in the council’s emergency response capabilities.
“We need to rebuild local capabilities and response plans that have fallen into disrepair over the last six years and look at how we forecast and model flooding so we can provide better intelligence to the public.”
Brown said land use planning and building regulations also needed to be addressed.
“Recent events exposed problems in where and how some houses have been built in Auckland. In some cases, the government or courts have constrained council’s ability to regulate, and this will need to be addressed,” he said.
“The council must be able to say no and plan for infrastructure, as managed retreat is a last-resort option.”
Te Atatū MP Phil Twyford said the announcement would be a relief to thousands of West Aucklanders who live close to streams “with the constant risk of flooding”.
“I’m glad that mayor Brown has listened to Westies who have been hugely frustrated at the council’s lack of stream maintenance,” Twyford said.
He highlighted a stretch of the Waimoko stream in Swanson, most of which went through private land.
Twyford said a bank had fallen into the stream, essentially creating a dam.
MP for Te Atatū Phil Twyford said the announcement is going to be a relief to thousands of West Aucklanders. Photo / File
“There’s no question in my mind that that blockage in the stream caused the flooding to be much worse than it otherwise would have been for people both upstream and downstream of that blockage.
“And that was because the council had not played its regulatory role in requiring those private landowners to look after the stream properly.”
West Aucklanders living near streams would be breathing a big sigh of relief that the problem was now on the council’s radar, Twyford said.
Morgan Allen is a spokesman for West Auckland Is Flooding, a collective of residents formed after the Auckland Anniversary floods.
Allen’s house - his first home which he bought at the peak of the market last year - backs on to a waterway and is in an area that frequently floods. He was personally affected by the Auckland Anniversary floods.
Morgan Allen is a spokesman for West Auckland Is Flooding, a collective of residents formed after the Auckland Anniversary floods. Photo / Supplied
It was yellow stickered after being completely flooded in just 10 minutes. He had to be rescued by firefighters.
Allen said he appreciated the mayor moving quickly and looking for solutions, but the response needed a more “nuanced approach”.
“It needs to be evaluated in a cost-benefit sort of analysis,” Allen said.
“We can do a bunch of maintenance, we can do some upgrades, but we need to know whether that’s actually gonna do enough to reduce the risk.
“No amount of stream maintenance would have prevented that flooding on 27 January, there would still have been places that flooded.”
The West Auckland Is Flooding group has proposed voluntary buyouts for flood-prone properties. Allen believes the cost of new flood-preventive infrastructure would be similar, if not larger, than buying people out.
