Wairoa Mayor Craig Little has requested an apology from the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council regarding its management of the Wairoa River mouth and its correlation to last week’s flooding.

“Our community has asked for and needs an apology, and I have made the request, yet we have not received an apology from the regional council despite it now being a week after the flooding.

“The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is responsible for the river mouth management, chairman of the HBRC Hinewai Ormsby has said, ‘we can all agree if the mouth could have been opened earlier there would have been far less impact on those communities. The experienced contractor who has opened the bar for more than 30 years says the HBRC’s decision to do the work came too late.

“The government has called an immediate inquiry into the Wairoa River mouth management, and still, we have no apology from the organisation responsible for looking after the bar.

“The type of flooding that occurred in Wairoa has not happened in living memory and impacted around 400 local properties with 123 yellow placards issued.

“Our early estimations are $40 million in costs; this includes the reinstatement of flood-impacted homes, the massive impact on Council infrastructure from landfill overloading to the effect on three waters infrastructure and parks and reserves. We also have businesses and farms that flooded. And all this is on top of the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.”

Mr Little said this is not a new issue. “For years, we have been asking the regional council to listen to our local knowledge when it comes to the river mouth, and now, what we had been trying to avoid has happened. The time has come to open up the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council treasure chest that it has for a rainy day - that day has come - it’s time to pull out the family silver.

“Our community is asking for financial support to rebuild, reassurance that if this type of event happens again tomorrow, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council response will be different, and that Wairoa will not be declared a flood zone because of a river mouth management error.”

Mr Little said the damage has been done, the river mouth should have been opened days before the event and the regional council listening to the wrong people has caused catastrophic and unnecessary damage to our township.”

“I welcome the government’s urgent independent inquiry and continued support, including the additional $500,000 for the Mayoral Relief Fund. While I appreciate the government support, it is ironic, considering they are not the ones who caused the flooding.  I thank everyone for the tremendous support we have received so far.”  

4 July 2024

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