MY heart goes out to all of the whanau that have been affected by the floods. I live in Whangaehu and most of my neighbours' houses have been flooded - many, if not all of them, for the third or fourth time in the past 11 years.
We need a long-term solution for the people who live in the flood zone in Whangaehu, Whanganui, Waitotara and those areas in the Te Tai Hauauru electorate that, if not flooded now, could be in the future.
Government and local authorities need to work with families affected by the floods to work out a long-term solution. If this means relocating families, then government agencies need to be working together to look at how these whanau can be assisted. Some whanau in Whangaehu say their homes are worthless now and their situation is dire.
It's not difficult to join the dots to climate change, which means more extreme weather events. The floods of 2004 were said to be a once in 100-year flood, 2006 was said to be a once in 50-year flood and it would be unwise to put a number on the latest flood. But given we are in the throes of climate change, there is much work to be done to mitigate future extreme weather events to keep us safe and above the floodwaters.
Our Whanganui River did its job - it receives the water from the tributaries that flow into it and rushes it out to sea. But with all this rain our precious topsoil is washed off the land. This is another area that urgently requires attention to keep the soil on the hills in our regions. In these times of torrential rains, the high country hills stripped of trees are not sustainable. We need to be planting more native trees to keep our topsoils on the hills.
