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‘Difficult conversations’ coming on flood funds Richard Rennie
POLITICS
D
Infrastructure
IFFICULT conversations about the future of many poorer, flood-prone rural communities are going to have to be had in the near future after a government report highlighted the areas that will face the biggest challenges. An Internal Affairs commissioned report has identified more than 40 communities sharing the twin burdens of low socioeconomic status and elevated risk of flooding, with inadequate infrastructure for protection. Minister for Emergency Management and Associate Minister for Local Government Kieran McAnulty said the report was a starting point for discussions on how these communities will mitigate flood risks that are only likely to increase, thanks to climate change. “These are difficult conversations that have to happen in the future. We are not signalling that communities will necessarily have to move, but there will be some changes for them.” More than half of the communities identified are in the North Island and fall into clusters found in Northland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, and East Coast.
The report overlaid NIWA flood data with socio-economic data on household net wealth and income for districts. Communities like East Coast have half their households in the bottom 20% of socio-economic indicators. Westport, the victim of repeated flood events with an average household income of $54,000 a year is reported as among NZ’s lowest socio-economic areas. McAnulty said the report was prompted by the repeated floodings at Westport and the government was considering the business case for how best to fund and restore the community. “What it does speak to is it cannot continue in the same way for every community in the country that is affected.” He acknowledged concerns over funding had also been heightened after the devastating flood events that have since laid to waste kilometres of roading infrastructure in the NelsonMarlborough district. “Marlborough may well be the first case in the country where these conversations have to happen.” In July last year $80million of damage was inflicted upon the community’s road network, and government stepped in with 95% Continued page 5
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