Flood risk audit welcomed by Waikato Regional Council

Waikato Regional Council has welcomed the findings of a mitigating flood risk report by the Office of the Auditor-General.

The report sought to understand how well Waikato Regional Council is ensuring flood protection infrastructure effectively mitigates the risk of flooding along rivers, coasts and inland bodies of water and how planning might be improved.

Waikato Regional Council was found to have “sound processes for understanding of the performance of its flood protection infrastructure, good asset information, catchment-wide planning, and a systemic process for prioritising investment”.

However, it also has work to do when it comes to decision-making on intended service levels that will mitigate flood risk effectively into the future.

Details of the report, tabled in Parliament today, were shared in a confidential briefing of regional councillors in late October.

“The report should give communities comfort that this council is doing a good job when it comes to the management of flood protection assets, while at the same time providing direction for the ongoing understanding of flood risk,” said Waikato Regional Council Chair, Warren Maher.

“Through our last long term plan we identified the need to understand natural hazard risk and resilience to our communities, especially from floods, and have already progressed projects that address several of the OAG’s recommendations.

“We could do more,” said Cr Maher. “The question is how much more can be done at a time when the central government has imposed rates capping, affordability is an issue for our communities, and significant changes are proposed to the structure of regional government.”

The council’s flood protection and land drainage assets include floodgates, pump stations, spillways and channels, as well as 620km of stopbanks most of which are in the Waihou-Piako and Lower Waikato.  Some of these schemes were developed in the 1960s. They are all supported by a network of automated rain gauges and river level/flow recorders.

Chief Executive Chris McLay said Waikato Regional Council’s investment in systems to understand how the region’s schemes are performing and enable the efficient management of assets like stopbanks were sound, as backed up by the OAG report.

“Generally, our most frequent and impactful natural hazard risks are associated with water – either too much (floods), or not enough (droughts). 

“When it comes to too much water, we agree there is a need for a broader understanding of flood risk across the regionand to work with our communities on how best to manage these events, both now and in the future. We need to take a collaborative approach to having these conversations with our communities, which involve us, local councils and civil defence.”

Mr McLay explained that assessment of risk is based on how a natural hazard impacts an area, infrastructure or a community. “We are currently undertaking work at both a regional scale and local scale working with communities in a number of different parts of our region to understand risk from a natural hazard, which is key to prioritising management and adaptation to that hazard.”

An example of the collaborative work with communities is the Hauraki Plains Adaptation Plan, led by Hauraki District Council with regional council support.

Further information

More information about the region’s hazards can be found at waikatoregion.govt.nz/natural-hazards-in-the-waikato-region. 

A recently available resource is the Waikato Regional Climate Change Hazards and Risks Report. This contains district summaries of key climate change hazards and risks. 

Flood management in the Waikato region

• The replacement value of extensive flood protection infrastructure is $1.2 billion.
• 300,000 hectares of land is protected by our flood protection infrastructure.
• Our regional economy is boosted by $2.2 billion due to being able to use this land productively.
• Several key “golden triangle” transport corridors are more resilient because of our flood infrastructure, including state highways 1, 2, 25, 26, 27 and the main trunk railway.
• The council estimates it will cost $2.9 billion over the next 50 years to operate, maintain and renew our flood infrastructure.