Government releases Wairoa flood review findings

The independent rapid review into the Wairoa flooding event on 26 June 2024 has been released, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced today.

"We welcome the review's findings and recommendations to strengthen Wairoa's resilience against future events," Ms Simmonds says.

The review found the flood event was caused by a combination of factors leading to the river backing up and overflowing, driving a mix of fresh and salt water into the low-lying areas of the town.

"The review highlighted shortcomings around planning and management of the river mouth and bar and recognised the need for greater engagement from the Hawke's Bay Regional Council with the Wairoa District Council and community on emergency preparedness.

"The report clearly states that now is the time to act decisively and with urgency.

"To mitigate against similar future events, the report recommends the Hawke's Bay Regional Council partner with the Wairoa council and community to develop a Wairoa River Bar Operational Plan.

Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says the review's recommendations will help Crown Manager to the Hawke's Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils, Lawrence Yule, to direct the councils in the planning and delivery of flood protection works.

"This plan will detail monitoring actions, identify trigger thresholds for action to mitigate and manage risk, as well as outlining communication protocols," Mr Brown says.

Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell notes the review also recommends taking a more proactive and precautionary approach to potential emergencies.

"The people of Wairoa need to be assured that the strongest of measures, and systems are in place to deal with future weather events. I support the recommendations in the review and expect responsible parties to deliver on them with urgency.

"This includes developing stronger and more responsive partnerships and communication to ensure Wairoa's civic leaders have real time information so they can inform and protect their community," Mr Mitchell says.

The review includes recommendations for central government to consider.

This Government has recently announced that it will review the natural hazards national direction. This will provide direction to councils on how to identify natural hazards, assess the risk they pose, both now and in the future, and how to respond to that risk through planning controls such as directing development away from high natural hazard risk areas, or providing appropriate mitigation of that risk.

It will include requirements to identify and map natural hazards in regions and districts. This will improve council data on natural hazards, improve transparency, and allow people to know where hazards are.

Penny Simmonds thanked everyone who took part in the review.

"I want to thank the Wairoa community, the Hawke's Bay Regional Council, Wairoa District Council, Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa Trust, and Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group for sharing their stories and knowledge, and for taking the time to contribute to this review.

"I also want to thank Mike Bush for leading the independent review and providing this report."

To read the report, visit: Review of the management of the Wairoa River bar | Ministry for the Environment

Media contacts:

Minister Simmonds: Amy Stapleton

Minister Brown: Ben Craven

Minister Mitchell: Fleur Thompson

Notes to editors:

Recommendations from the review

Central government should consider taking steps to clarify the current legislative framework for flood management, which is at present spread across multiple pieces of legislation and has the potential to cause confusion. An efficient time to do this may be when the new national direction on natural hazards is developed as part of the government's RMA reforms.

The HBRC should develop, implement and communicate a Wairoa River and Bar Operational Management Plan in partnership with local partners and communities. The Plan should include:

1. Formalised utilisation of indigenous knowledge and kaupapa Māori approaches to river, mouth and bar management.
2. Actions to monitor the river bar (both locally and remotely) and to identify the trigger thresholds for action to mitigate and manage risks, including monitoring of mouth placement, sea state and wave conditions, river levels, silt conditions and rainfall forecasts.
3. A risk management framework that defines areas of work to maintain the long-term integrity of the river and surrounding communities.
4. Clear trigger thresholds, delegated authorities and contingency resourcing to mobilise river bar clearing/mouth opening well in advance of potentially high-risk events.
5. Detailed flow charts showing SOPs and mapping optimal timelines, decision paths and key accountabilities for mouth and bar management. These should take into account the long lead times required for mechanical bar and mouth management.
6. KPIs for monitoring and reporting on bar and mouth integrity.
7. Clear communications protocols for support to localised and tailored communications; and
8. Targeted flood prevention, management and response plans for high risk communities, including those on the Wairoa coastal hazard zone in closest proximity to the river.

The HBRC should also:

1. Instruct its Asset Management Group to:
2. Integrate its various Wairoa River Management instructions into an integrated plan as above.
3. Establish improved detection and early warning systems for the Wairoa River mouth and bar that provide adequate warning of potential or impending problems, including camera monitoring of the mouth.
4. Update its river monitoring models to stake better account of sea state, bathymetric riverbed profiles and silt levels, and wave and wind conditions.
5. Contract local resources to provide a regular maintenance regime for the Wairoa River mouth and bar, as well as to support prevention and response work when required, according to clear service specifications and standards as above; and
6. Develop formal protocols - such as regular collective forums - for the ongoing utilisation of local Wairoa community knowledge in flood hazard preparedness and management.
7. Take a more proactive and precautionary approach to potential emergencies, reducing the risk of optimism bias. A precautionary approach will ensure the timeliness of preventive work and ensure advance warnings are given to at risk communities.
8. Consider utilising weather data from both MetService and NIWA.74
9. Tailor and upweight its support to Wairoa, given that community's vulnerability and current single line of defence in flood emergencies.
10. As recommended in the Tonkin + Taylor Technical Review, revisit past infrastructural options for mouth and bar management and commission the investigation of new technology and physical infrastructure options, including coastal groynes and methods for improving the flood resilience of high-risk roads and settlements. This may entail further engagement with central government agencies; and
11. Develop better and more responsive partnerships and communications systems to ensure that civic leaders in Wairoa have real time information, delivered in an appropriate manner and which supports them to inform and protect their local communities.

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