Looking after stopbanks is dam important

Someone thought it was a good idea to cut a hold in this stopbank.

Relevant offers

1984 Floods

Flood of memories People felt pressured Your say: The 1984 floods If it's this bad now, what's still to come? Watching as your life washes away 'A town devastated' Never a Day Like It, and lived through Getting back to order after the floods All flights cancelled How prepared are you?

Love Your Stopbanks!

Stopbanks could be the only things keeping your property safe from inundation, so why wouldn't you look after them?

It's a question that puzzles Environment Southland, but the answer is often simply that people have short memories.

"As time goes by, people forget why the banks are important," catchment manager Noel Hinton says.

"The community is not sure why these mounds of dirt are sitting there."

That's why 25 years after the January 1984 floods, the council is looking to remind Southlanders about the importance of the stopbanks, dams, culverts, flapgates and other structures that stand between them and possible inundation.

Mr Hinton winces as he lists the stupid things that people do.

"We see dog kennels dug into the side of stopbanks; holes knocked into them to allow access for irrigators; stock are allowed to trample them and dirtbikes carve out huge ruts."

Flapgates have been wedged open, children happily dig huts in the banks, gorse and broom reduce the grass cover, and it all creates weak points where floodwaters can scour out a hole and set water churning out of the channel.

During the next few years all the Invercargill flood schemes and several of those on the other major rivers will be 20 years old, and Environment Southland hopes the community will take an interest in a major review of the level of protection they provide, which is one of the proposals in its Long Term Council Community Plan due for release in March.

"We're doing this because things change over time, and the community is not the same as it was in 1984," Mr Hinton says.

He estimates that more than half the farmers who own riverside property on the Oreti and Aparima rivers have bought their land since the flood schemes were built, and many will never have seen the banks tested by a big flood.

The situation in Invercargill will be the same, with many residents unaware that they live in a floodplain.

Even those who enjoy the Waihopai walkway or stroll in the Otepuni Gardens are largely unaware that the tracks and landscaped areas are part of a comprehensive network of flood protection works.

The schemes were designed to contain a 1984-sized flood with a bit of spare capacity, but that is no reason for complacency, Mr Hinton says.

It's pure luck that there have been no major floods since the schemes were built, and some time that luck is bound to run out.

"So love your stopbanks. Look after them. Don't do anything stupid to them because one day you will need them to be sitting there at the height and shape that they are."

» Share your memories and experiences

» View audio slideshow

- © Fairfax NZ News