Far North farmers sceptical over council promise to clear drains that cause floods

Swimming is an annual winter activity for Far North farmer Paul Harvey’s cows as the paddocks flood in heavy due to Far North District Council not cleaning out drains near the farm, and others, north of Kaitāia, for about four years

Swimming lessons are a winter activity for cows and dogs on Far North farms - but out of necessity, not fun, due to flooding causing by council drains not being cleaned out.

Far North District Council has admitted it has been slack not maintaining drains in Kaitāia, Waiharara/Kaikino and Motutangi schemes ‘for several years’, causing consternation and stress for farmers.

The council said it will clean the drains out in early summer - potentially three months away - but farmers say they have had similar promises in the past, and fear spring storms could lead to more flooding while they wait.

They say they will “believe it when we see it’’.

Houhora farmer Paul Harvey has two farms that regularly flood. He reckoned the main reason was because the council drains were not cleaned as regularly as necessary.

A member of the Motutangi drainage scheme board, he said the three years of the Covid pandemic saw no work on the drains and his farms were hit hard.

He, and others from the area, including Fiona King and Jeremy White, took their concerns to last month’s Te Hiku Community Board meeting, pleading for action.

Harvey said he paid about $70,000 a year in council rates and wondered why he continued paying it when the work needed was not done.

Council head of infrastructure strategy Tanya Proctor acknowledged the concerns.

“We acknowledge that maintenance of flood prevention drains in the Kaitāia, Waiharara and Kaikino, and Motutangi drainage schemes has fallen short of expectations for several years and that this has impacted some landowners.

‘’Earlier this year, I attended the drainage area committee meetings held in March. The council has since undertaken weed spraying of the drains, but it has become evident more extensive repairs are needed.

‘’Some repairs will require heavy machinery, which cannot begin until early summer when the ground is drier and more stable. Our aim will be to return the drains to their original depth and course.’’

But the commitment provided little comfort to the farmers.

Harvey said his paddocks becomes like a lake in winter, thanks to the blocked drains and a video he provided showed just how bad the situation could get, with cows and dogs forced to swim through floodwaters.

‘’What they are saying now is the same as what we have heard for the last four years. They promise action, but nothing gets done to clean the drains out. This has been promised several times, so I’m not holding out too much hope this time. I’ll just wait and see.’’

He said all the farmers concerned were really struggling with a situation that was putting their livelihoods at risk.

‘’This just sounds like more buck passing to me. We just want the work done as soon as possible please.’’

A blocked council drain that leads to flooding on the King’s Far North farm

King said she, too, was sceptical the work would finally be done.

‘’There’s not really anything they can do in winter, anyway, and it was good that they sprayed them earlier, with Tanya (Proctor) keen to do a good job since she came in,’’ she said.

Her concern was money in the drainage scheme accounts for the work from the farmer’s targeted rates may not be enough to pay for all the work needed.

‘’We pay a targeted rate per hectare of land and if there’s not enough money in the account will the council pay the extra or will they loan the schemes the money needed then recoup it from our future targeted rate? We just want the work done.’’

White laughed when told the council’s response.

‘’Yeah, whatever. We have heard all this before and I’ll believe it when I see it. It takes a while to organise the big diggers needed, and they can’t just be arranged a few days before needed. So, I’m concerned that it won’t happen, again.’’

Harvey said in the past two winters he had lost part of the farm underwater for weeks at a time, which cost time, money and effort to repair.

Each time it cost thousands of dollars to repair the damage and affected his livelihood and business.

Blocked council drains cause extensive flooding on Jeremy White’s farm, north of Kaitāia

‘’Then they came in, I think it was June, to clean out the drains, but they couldn’t get the digger in because the farm there was already flooded,” Harvey said.

‘’I wonder why I pay my rates on these places, I really do, as nothing seems to get better, despite it going on for years.’’

White, who farms 120 hectares and is also on the Motutangi drainage scheme board, was sick of promise after promise being made to clean the drains, but “nothing seems to get done”.

King said for more than three years there had been no council drain clearance around her farms and the properties had been flooded on more than one occasion as a result.

She said farmers were sick of a lot of talk, but little action on the drains, and they were wondering if they were getting value for the levies paid. Her family had been farming in the area since the 1930s and it was only in the past few years there had been problems.