In the wake of last week’s flooding that hit parts of the North Island, Auckland Council is urging people to avoid clearing roadside drains ahead of forecast wet weather in the coming days.
A state of emergency which lasted for two days was declared for Auckland on May 9, as parts of the city were overwhelmed with flooding which compromised transport networks and prompted evacuations for some people.
Andrew Skelton, the council’s head of area operations for healthy waters, said a year’s worth of rain had already fallen in the region this year.
He said in Auckland there are 118,000 roadside grilles and the chambers underneath them are cleaned each year using trucks designed to suck out the silt, sediment and build-up of hydrocarbon waste from vehicles.
"This time of year is challenging with the autumn leaf fall," he said.
As floods become more commonplace, council’s advice is for the public to avoid trying to surface-clear roadside drains themselves.
“We would encourage individuals to clear their own drains and guttering but clearing roadside drains isn’t something we encourage,” Skelton said.
“We would want communities to ring council for clearing drains outside of their property and we will have a contractor come out and attend to them instead.”
He said the advice was based on health and safety precautions, adding that there are dangers involved such as the potential of being struck by a vehicle or struggling with moving and lifting grilles.
“Clearing roadside drains isn’t something we encourage
Skelton said council contractors who are on call 24/7, check and clear roadside drains 3-4 days before heavy rain is forecast and straight after rain has hit. He said leaf litter on the surface of the road is cleared by Auckland Transports’ street-sweeping truck.
Last week, the council said some drains, stormwater catchpits, and pipes across Auckland were at capacity after Tuesday’s flooding and heavy rain overwhelmed some areas of the city.
He said there are currently 260 sites, some of which are on the road, that are flagged as problematic across the Auckland urban area.
Some are drains, inlets, screen (fenced grate) and grilles that are part of the council’s regular hotspot cleaning programme.
“We encourage people to report any issue or fault they perceive with the storm water network,” he said, so that contractors can proactively attend sites before rain events.
He said council responded to 600 flooding incidents last week with 160 contractors working on the ground in the super city - 97% of these were attended within the hour.
“This year has been significant. We’ve had four intense weather events which are definitely becoming more frequent.”
It comes as MetService today released a never-before-seen graph, which shows 2023's Auckland rainfall measure as the most significant since records began.
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