DCC’s response to Harwood flooding questioned

READING the article ‘‘DCC response wins praise from all quarters’’ (ODT,

25.7.17) prompted me to write to you.

The residents of Harwood on the peninsula received no response from anyone from the Dunedin City Council during or after major flooding to more than 12 properties.

Many people had no drinking water for days due to flooding of their water tank. Some are elderly residents. All the stormwater drains were either blocked or not large enough. The last issue has been acknowledged by the DCC from the mid1980s.

The only praise we in Harwood have is for our local Portobello volunteer fire brigade members who attended and unblocked the drains which the DCC staff should have checked and unblocked. No maintenance has been

done to our drainage. If you call a dangerous and illegal open pit on the side of the road ‘‘drainage’’, well, I didn’t realise we were are living in a third world city.

Maurice Bennett

Harwood [Sandy Graham, general manager strategy and governance, Dunedin

City Council, replies: ‘‘The response to the July flooding event was a coordinated, multiagency response.

‘‘As well as DCC staff and contractors, many other agencies including emergency services, Red Cross, the local community board and volunteer fire brigades assisted to provide support to those in need.

Many of these agencies (including the DCC) did respond to issues in the Harwood area in the days following the flood.

‘‘There were people in need across the entire city and the agencies and services above did their best to accommodate the wide and varied needs of citizens during the recovery. Lessons can always be learned and improvements made to future responses.’’]