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“But that [early] one was worse because as well as pushing the Orowaiti up into that end of town the Buller River actually burst out and flowed directly into Westport – it came close to it this time but didn t quite get there.” Niwa was getting valuable data from the flood warning system set up recently with funding from the Government as one of the regional council s shovel-ready projects, Measures said. “This allows us to integrate our river-monitoring with weather forecasts and rainfall data and get projections as early as possible to the Emergency Management Centre . it can only become more valuable with time, as we build up data and experience.”
Photo: Supplied / West Coast Regional Council
The council has included the Westport project in its 2021- 2031 long term plan which is yet to be released to the public.
But Beal said the scheme involved extensive stopbanks and floodwalls - essentially ringfencing the town from the Buller and Orowaiti rivers and would cost $10.2 million. It is designed for a one-in-a-100-year flood in the Buller . and whether it would have protected the town this time, the simple answer is yes, unless there was a flood bank failure, Beale said. There would likely still have been surface flooding damage to some properties from storm water but not to the same extent or over widespread areas.
Peter Meecham/Stuff
Former Westport harbour master and seafarer David Barnes has been warning for years the Buller River was a major flood risk for the town and needed regular dredging. He says he was ignored. The regional council originally pitched the project to Westport ratepayers in 2017, but they had little appetite for it, Beal said. Only 10.8 percent of respondents supported it; 24.6 percent preferred to do nothing about their town s flood risk and 30 per cent had no opinion. “It would have been an expense for ratepayers, certainly, and without a majority supporting it we couldn t go ahead,” he said. The regional council also tried pitching the Westport flood protection scheme to the Government last year, for funding as a shovel-ready project, but it was turned down.