Kerre Woodham: Is it time to rethink where we build our communities?

And here we all are, another summer, and while for many people it was fun in the sun and family catchups, for others it was dealing with floods and landslides. Specialised crews are still working, and will be working for some time yet, on recovering the bodies of the missing Mount Maunganui campers. Families are mourning the loss of a Welcome Bay grandmother and grandson killed in another Bay of Plenty landslip, and around the country communities are dealing with being cut off from main thoroughfares and facing lengthy drives to access any kind of amenities, probably counting their lucky stars that their family members are not among the dead and injured from this year's summer storms. 

It's horrifying, but it's not unexpected, is it? Ever since humans have attempted to tame the environment around them, they've had to deal with the fact that often they will come off second best. So, do we need to rethink how and where we build our communities? It's the definition of madness to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, and yet that is what we do.  

Cabinet's meeting this morning and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Mike Hosking they'd be discussing the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to fix major roading damage from this year's summer storms. Last year they met to discuss the hundreds of millions of dollars that would be needed to fix roads, the year before that they needed to fix kilometres of roads around the country, and that too would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. A large part of the Waioeka Gorge, which connects Gisborne and Bay of Plenty, will be closed for several weeks to clear slips from the roads. Farmers in the region are calling for a plan B and a more resilient road network because they say they can't handle being cut off from the rest of the country every 18 to 36 months. 

There are some communities that are looking at other options, rather than rebuilding every time there are floods and doing that every 18 to 36 months. You've got the town of Westport that's looking at a long-term managed retreat strategy, where they're not going to build a new town per se, but gradually any new projects will be built on higher, safer ground away from the severe flood risk, and there'll be plans for a new hub and infrastructure to encourage gradual relocation over generations.  

There's also a proposal to shift Kumeū's town centre over a number of years. That was tabled by the Auckland Council around about this time last year. A proposal to shift Kumeū and Huapai area because it has a repeated history of flooding, and yes, you can pay the higher insurance rates and you can rebuild and do it again and again, but why would you if there is an alternative? Infrastructure proposals are also being put forward, but a number of community leaders are saying it's pointless, it's putting your finger in the dyke. The better option is to concede defeat and build somewhere else.  

Certainly there are ways to mitigate damage from flooding and landslips, there are ways of predicting which areas are more prone to flooding and landslips, technology's improving all the time. In some instances though, do we just need to acknowledge that we are no match for the power of nature, concede defeat and step away? 

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