More heavy rain in Gisborne, in a year that began with Cyclone Hale then Cyclone Gabrielle, is again testing the region’s already overwhelmed and precarious infrastructure.
Roads that have only recently been repaired after the damage done by Cyclone Gabrielle have today been back under deep water.
Residents for whom the rain has become a recurring bully have been on evacuation standby, with some leaving their homes, although largely as a precautionary measure.
For Gisborne’s Mayor Rehette Stoltz it's a dreadful kind of déjà vu.
“I don’t want us after every rain event to start cleaning up," Stoltz told TVNZ’s Chief Correspondent, John Campbell, on TVNZ’s Q+A. “What I want us to do is do one job properly, build in that resilience.”
The Gisborne region has two new MP’s, National’s Dana Kirkpatrick in the East Coast electorate, and Labour’s Cushla Tangaere-Manuel in the Māori electorate of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, which stretches from the East Cape through Tairāwhiti, Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa to the Wellington suburb of Wainuiomata.
Both women are determined that Gisborne will get the support it needs.
For Tangaere-Manuel, this doesn’t only mean the financial assistance required to clean up after past storms and build in resilience to future storms, it also means a strong local say in how the region responds to the impact of climate change.
“We need action. You know, we’ve had support. We can’t say we haven’t had support. But what we really need is to be the designers before the deliverers,” she said.
Kirkpatrick agrees. Indeed, Campbell said a feature of speaking to both new MPs is the desire they’re expressing to work together on the region’s behalf, as much as party politics allows.
“I think if there’s one thing over and above everything that everybody talks to me about, it’s roading,” Kirkpatrick told Campbell. “And it’s resilient, reliable roading. Because that’s our game changer. That’s the thing that makes a difference. People aren’t coming here, tourists aren’t coming, because they can’t get here, and there’s no guarantee they’ll get home again. I mean, just today, roads closed again.”
Gisborne is not a wealthy region. And with a regional population of only 50,000 people, there aren’t anywhere near enough ratepayers to pay the bill for all the work required.
Dave Hadfield, the Gisborne District Council’s Infrastructure Manager, spoke to Campbell beside the Te Arai river, just south of Gisborne city.
There, what many people in the region hope will be a blueprint for tidying up and for future proofing, is taking place as a joint venture between the Gisborne District Council and (iwi) Rongowhakaata.
Woody debris are being removed, poplars (with their river-blocking root structure) are being felled and removed from the river’s banks, and riparian planting is taking place, using the native trees that once lined all of Gisborne’s rivers.
If the awa (river) can made less flood prone, then damage to farms will be prevented, neighbouring homes won’t flood, roads and bridges won’t be taken out, and people will be able to sleep more peacefully when it rains.
So much of the damage done during Cyclone Gabrielle was by rivers full of forestry debris essentially damming themselves, forcing water across land.
But protecting awa, and the land, roads and communities around them, is slow, labour intensive and costly.
“What we do know, with this project," Hadfield said. "Is that we’ve been given $37 million but our team have gone through and scoped all the networks that are affected by woody debris, and there’s actually about $117 million that we need. And so there’s an obvious shortfall. We didn’t know at the time, we know now. And so those will be further discussions that we’ll bring up with the Government.”
For the Gisborne region, this isn’t only about quality of life, it’s about economic survival. Roughly a half of the country’s population lives north of Gisborne.
When State Highway 2, connecting the region with Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Auckland and Northland is closed by storms, as it has frequently been over recent years, some of the region’s biggest employers can’t get the highly perishable fresh fruit and vegetables they grow to their customers.
“We’re over 50% of the broccoli business. You talk salads, we’re currently about 40% of the salad business… you talk lettuce in bags, we’re in the 90% range,” Richard Bourke, the CEO of grower LeaderBrand, told Campbell in June.
Without the ability to get their products out, fast and fresh, it becomes uneconomic to grow them.
Jobs, businesses, homes, communities, even lives, as was shown by Cyclone Gabrielle, are all at risk.
In May, an Inquiry into forestry slash by former National Cabinet Minister, Hekia Parata, described an “existential crisis” in Gisborne. “An environmental disaster is unfolding there in plain sight”, Parata said.
“See us. Help us,” the region’s politicians, no matter what side of the political spectrum they’re on, are all saying to the incoming Government.
Mayor Rehette Stoltz said the region must get the help it needs.
“I know our discussions with the new Government will be how we get back on our feet, how we build a lot of resilience, so we can come to our full potential here in the centre of the universe.”
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