At the meeting a report was presented outlining the history of flooding in Kumeū-Huapai stretching back to 1926, when the Kumeū Post Office flooded to a depth of 1.2m. Since then there have been five notable floods, more recently in August 2021 and two in 2023.
The council said a second shopping centre was planned to cope with future growth, although this was decades away.
A farmer and farmhands move stock at a Woodhill farm near Kumeū after flooding in 2021. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Auckland Council concluded an upstream dam or a drainage tunnel bored from the river across to the Waitematā Harbour, both costing hundreds of millions of dollars, were not feasible to stop future flooding.
Locals suggested the council was missing a vital and cost-effective solution by not keeping the river clear of dead trees, weeds and other debris. They said before the Super City, the legacy Rodney District Council would regularly carry out work along the Kumeū River removing materials that could potentially cause blockages and increase the risk of flooding. Since the establishment of the Super City, that proactive work had stopped and been replaced by a policy of reactive maintenance work which they said was often too little, too late.
According to industrial landowners with businesses along the river edge, as well as the affected residential land owners, the lack of river maintenance is resulting in the unwanted build-up of debris, restricting water flow during high rainfall events. The restricted areas acted like “giant plugs”, backing up the water and eventually spilling over stop banks and flooding the low-lying land.
The strong feeling from the meeting was that if the river was better maintained, and obstacles removed before storms, this would help protect the town from flooding.
A 4WD stuck in floodwaters in Kumeū during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / George Heard
Hearing this, I promised those attending I would “go in to bat for them” with Auckland Council to get the proactive maintenance programme reinstated.
Furthermore, local contractors at the meeting spoke up, asking if the new maintenance work could be tendered locally, rather than automatically given to a council preferred supplier, giving the town greater transparency over the work being done and allowing them to use local knowledge to better pinpoint the “real work” needed.
The positive outcome has been that the council has listened, and agreed to trial all of the above. This is a great win for the flood-prone property owners along the Kumeū River.
Auckland Council has positively stated it will tender out a new proactive maintenance contract this year exclusively to local contractors as a pilot scheme for Kumeū. This is a double win. Not only will the river be proactively maintained, but the work will be carried out by a local contracting firm. If the trial is successful for Kumeū the same concept may be able to be rolled out to other areas of Auckland.
It is impossible to stop flooding occurring during extreme weather events, especially if rainfall is more than 100mm within a seven-hour period. By law, the council is still obligated to keep the town’s flood plain maps updated to show what properties will flood in an extreme rain event. These maps show the worst-case scenario of 200mm falling within a seven-hour period — and this amount of rainfall will be very rare. Unfortunately, insurance companies do not seem to be willing to acknowledge this rarity when assessing the insurability of properties.
Most importantly it means the town will be safer from flooding. Property owners, real estate agents, banks and insurance companies will be able to tangibly see an improvement in the river’s maintenance. With improved flood protection, local landowners and investors will hopefully have an improved feeling of optimism about Kumeū and Huapai’s future.
