Stay or leave: Flood-prone Franz Josef's residents may be forced out
Thursday, 4 April 2019
Debate is raging in Franz Josef over whether to build more stopbanks in the flood-prone Waiho River, or have residents move away.
The Waiho River is building up at a rate of about 30 centimetres a year and flooding in the Westland town in March 2016 inundated a hotel and holiday park and forced the evacuation of 200 people.
There are a series of floodwalls along the river at Franz Josef, one of which on the south side of the river, dubbed by locals the Milton wall, was destroyed along with the Waiho Bridge after heavy rain on March 26 this year.
Westland Mayor Bruce Smith said he was frustrated after a meeting with locals, the West Coast Regional Council and NZ Transport Agency to discuss the plan to manage the river risks.
**READ MORE:
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* Torrential rain causes chaos on the West Coast
* 'Emergency' $1.3 million stopbank built despite multiple warnings
* Funding granted for report into Franz Josef earthquake and flood hazards
* 'Too expensive' to protect West Coast town from another flood**
Moving people from that area would cost an estimated $35m, Smith said. Stop banks and 'river training' would cost substantially less.
He is in favour of maintaining existing and building new stopbanks to protect the town and its residents. However, the regional council is warning the stopbanks are not a long-term solution. The regional council is responsible for the region's river management.
Smith said he was asked to speak on behalf of residents living behind the Milton wall at the meeting on Monday night. He appealed to the regional council to reconstruct the wall but believed his pleas were fruitless.
The residents were forced to evacuate on Sunday night after only 65mm of rain, he said.
He said the regional council representatives at the meeting told him while the wall was insured it could take up to two years to claim.
'Get a dozer in and beef up the Milton wall. Yes, it might get damaged again but let's make this the number one priority. The second priority is to get government support.'
Smith believed the answer to the problem was to cut through an area of the river called the Waiho loop so it could flow more quickly and directly to sea, meaning less gravel build up.
A survey of Franz Josef residents in April 2018 found most support either completely or partly moving their town away from natural hazards, including the river and the Alpine Fault, which runs through the town.
The survey was a follow-up to a 2017 Tonkin & Taylor and EY report, commissioned by the council, which analysed three options for Franz Josef's future. It said doing nothing was not an option.
Franz Josef resident and Franz River rating group spokesman Logan Skinner said locals were extremely upset with the lack of action by the regional council.
'We have been asking for a proper river management plan for years and years. Doing nothing is no longer an option. The regional council don't want to build stopbanks but how else can people protect their properties,' he said.
The Auditor-General recently criticised Smith for building a stopbank on the Waiho River without the full authority of the Westland District Council. However, Skinner said properties and the town's sewerage ponds would have been destroyed without it.
Regional council chief executive Mike Meehan said he had listened to residents at the meeting. They had agreed on short-term measures the council was working on, including a temporary bund to divert the river from the properties and removing rock from the river bed.
'What the residents said at the meeting was they wanted all the options on the table. We will come back with all the options; rebuild, rebuild with a different alignment or walk away. It is not simple and I don't have a pool of money to go and fix all the problems,' he said.
Funding from central Government would be essential to any solution, Meehan said.