Schools hit by flooding a ‘scary reality’
In just 30 years, a coastal Waikato town is predicted to find its main street knee-deep in water. By the end of the century, its schools will also be gone.
Cleaning up the aftermath of a storm is something the Thames community has dealt with many times, but a recent Niwa study predicts a looming 1-metre sealevel rise will also disrupt the town’s education sector.
Two young activists say the local council’s reluctance to take action will doom the town, while the Thames-Coromandel mayor argues ‘‘what more can we do’’ to prepare for D-Day.
The Niwa model shows the low-lying town is likely to be submerged in water, up to at least Thames High School, by roughly 2100. It’s predicted 12 other Waikato schools and 94 schools nationally will also be affected.
The rising tides could create flooding around school buildings and roads, cutting kids off from their classrooms, and seawater in pipes could cause toilets and sinks to back up, Niwa research shows.
While Thames High School won’t be the most impacted – with schools such as Hauraki Plains College, Ngatea School, Turua Primary School to experience flooding in a less than 1cm sealevel rise – the urgency to ‘‘protect home’’ is real for Thames High School students Helena Mayer and Lillian Balfour.
It’s what has fuelled the pair to organise several climate strikes in the community over the past few years and join the Hauraki Coromandel Climate Action group – an organisation that took the local council to court for its decision not to sign the Local Government New Zealand Climate Change Declaration.
‘‘It’s a scary reality that our schools, which are such a central part of our community, are going to be so heavily affected by climate change in the short-term future,’’ Helena said.
‘‘We won’t be students then, but it’s going to be people just like us who are going to be impacted.’’
Helena, whose pronouns are they and them, said the Thames community has had to clean up the mess of many storms, but to know flooding may be permanent and that it could rob young people of their education is a ‘‘terrifying thing’’.
‘‘The primary school, Te Puru, that I went to was on the list and I had never really thought about it directly but the classrooms are less than 10 metres away from the beach.
‘‘Thames High School’s field also already floods when there’s a lot of rain, making it basically unusable.’’
They also think of the handful of 5- and 6-year-olds who joined them in the climate strike, holding up signs saying ‘‘save the flowers and trees’’ in protest.
‘‘It’s their education that’s on the line.’’
For many years Thames has had catchments in place aimed to carry and remove high quantities of sediment during floods. However, a 2002 weather bomb event showed the catchment wasn’t enough to prevent the destruction of flooding, turning trickling hillside streams into raging torrents in just a few minutes, carrying fallen trees, boulders, and many thousand tonnes of mud through homes, properties and roads.
Between Tararu and Waikawau 356 properties were inundated. One person died.
Another significant flood in April 2003 – at the time the fifth major flood event since 1981 – moved Waikato Regional Council and Thames-Coromandel District Council to update their flooding and catchment management, after $13.2 million damage to private homes, campgrounds and infrastructure.
Previously describing its approach to climate change as ‘‘ad hoc’’, the district council adopted a Coastal Management Strategy and Coastal Hazards Policy.
This led to a town flood wall, stopbanks, bank stabilisation work and the purchase of a number of high-risk properties.
Taking it a step further, the district council is now halfway through a three-year project to define the flooding and erosion risks across all parts of the coastline over the next century and beyond.
Knowing these measures are only going to be put in place after the town is significantly impacted, however, doesn’t sit well with Lillian.
‘‘The response that we’ve seen from TCDC is that the energy goes into fixing the issues rather than preparing,’’ Lillian said.
‘‘They’re very hesitant to take any remedial measures to stop climate change from getting worse, but they have a shoreline management plan for the eventuality, so the mindset is we are just going to respond rather than prevent it.
She said its response for not doing something is always that they ‘‘don’t have the finances to put all these preparations in place, but an event like this is very expensive to clean up after anyway’’.
She wants to see the council be more ‘‘brave’’.
When Stuff asked mayor Sandra Goudie if she thought the council’s climate management plan was brave enough, she said, ‘‘What more can we do?’’
‘‘This is a lot of places and people we are talking about. We can’t just pick them up and drop them off somewhere else,’’ Goudie said.
When probed about whether she thought climate change was happening or if climate change was important to her, she refused to comment. Instead, she said it was up to the community to decide what was most important to them through the Shoreline Management Plan.
TCDC asset and planning manager Amon Martin said council had done a lot of ‘‘detailed work’’ to understand the climate change risk to their towns over the next 100 years.
‘‘Together with iwi, we’ve now set up coastal panels, so our communities can tell us what action they want us to take,’’ Martin said.
‘‘Once we know the preferred options for each area we’ll be able to cost the projects. Our focus right now is making sure our panels have all the expertise, advice and scientific modelling they need to make sound decisions.’’
Schools affected
‘‘It’s a scary reality that our schools . . . are going to be so heavily affected by climate change in the shortterm future’’
– Helena Mayer
0cm: Aka Aka School, Hauraki Plains College, Kopuarahi School, Netherton School, Ngatea School, Turua Primary School, Waitakaruru School.
1 to 50cm: Colville School, Kaiaua School, Thames South School.
51 to 100cm: Tapu School, Thames High School, Te Puru School.