Canterbury’s regional council is bracing itself for the next major weather event, as the clean-up from Kaikōura’s July flood continues.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) hazards general manager Leigh Griffiths visited Kaikōura last week to update the Kaikōura District Council and ratepayers on recovery efforts.
‘‘Chances are, in the next 10 years there will be another flood event somewhere in Canterbury and you’ve got to maintain your assets in the meantime.’’
More than 450mm of rain is believed to have fallen on July 7 and 8, which left local rivers and water ways in flood, bringing down millions of cubic metres of gravel and raising the Kowhai River bed by five to seven metres in places.
ECan is facing an estimated repair bill of more than $30m, with just 1500 landowners in the Kaikōura river rating district.
Ms Griffiths said staff have completed some technical analysis with LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), to provide an understanding of the immediate issues and what longer term work may be needed.
‘‘The whole river bed liquefied and came down. It was significant and a significant amount of gravel went out to sea.
‘‘It’s not as widespread in the lower reaches as we first thought, but it’s still significant in localised areas.’’
There is still a significant amount of gravel at the headwaters which could be washed down at any time.
Ms Griffiths said last week’s visit was a chance to get community feedback on ‘‘what may or may not be affordable’’.
With just 1500 ratepayers in the rating district, more than $30m would work out at around $22,000 per ratepayer.
ECan has already exhausted the Kaikōura river rating district’s annual maintenance budget of $2m.
The council has agreed to debt fund a further $5.09m, which will be recovered from a general rate across the 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years.
Further funding will be considered as part of next year’s Long Term Plan process, but conversations were continuing with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the National Emergency Management Agency for co-funding.
While the future of ECan may be uncertain, Ms Griffiths said planning for Kaikōura’s long term recovery and future and future resilience was a priority.
Council staff were also wary the El Niño weather pattern could bring hot and dry conditions on the coast, and heavy rain in the alps this summer.
‘‘ECan is 100 percent committed to supporting Kaikōura and anywhere else in the region which may be impacted by El Niño,’’ Ms Griffiths said.
‘‘In Waimakariri it could be extremely hot with high fire risk and the river in flood at the same time.
‘‘It’s happened before and depending on how things play out, it could happen this summer.’’
She said ECan had good flood warning systems in place and fire breaks have been established in regional parks.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
