Council endorses call for urgent action on flood protection

Council endorses call for urgent action from Central Government on flood protection

Environment Southland council, today, gave their support to a comprehensive report urging Central Government to prioritise sustained co-investment in flood protection across New Zealand.

The Central Government Co-investment in Flood Protection Schemes Supplementary Report reinforces that New Zealanders’ lives and livelihoods are in very real danger from increasingly severe and frequent flood risks arising from climate change.

Te Uru Kahika, representing sixteen Regional and Unitary Councils throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, released the report on 6 April 2022. It urges Central Government to provide supporting investment to fund critical flood protection infrastructure across New Zealand.

Environment Southland's chairman Nicol Horrell said the time for Central Government to commit to a long term, co-investment approach for flood protection is now.

"Science shows us that we will get more extreme weather patterns, so while we have had an exceptionally dry period in Southland, severe flooding is highly likely to affect our region again."

"The three years of climate resilience funding announced in July 2020 has enabled us to bring forward critical upgrades to our region's flood protection schemes and was very welcome. For the long-term, ongoing Central Government funding would give certainty that an appropriate level of protection can be maintained in the face of increasing climate change impacts in the future."

Te Uru Kahika’s report strengthens the findings of an earlier report in 2019, which revealed that the combined $200m regional and unitary council investment in flood protection schemes each year was falling short of what is required to meet flood protection needs by $150m per annum. Over the ten years considered, that would be $1.5b of under-investment in critical flood protection schemes.

The report documents the scale of Crown assets protected by flood protection schemes, advocating that the efficient functioning of the economy and our communities is a responsibility that must be shared between regional councils and Central Government.

Southland's flood protection schemes increase defences for our regional airport in Invercargill, our main highway and rail link, and communities' lives and livelihoods throughout the region. However, maintenance and upgrades to these schemes are funded principally by Southland ratepayers.

“Regional councils are a proven reliable partner for the Government when it comes to delivering flood risk management. However, we do support the call for a prudent and realistic financial partnership that will ultimately pay dividends for central and regional government and protect the communities we serve," said Chairman Horrell.