$22m to tackle Tawa flooding
Tawa’s flooding problems may be a thing of the past after the Wellington City Council allocated a $22 million flood mitigation budget in its long-term plan.
The plan outlined three key stages of redevelopment over 10 years after an analysis of the suburb’s flooding issue by Wellington Water.
Investments of about $500,000 and $750,000 were allocated for Tawa School and street flood mitigation respectively. $9.2m would be used for storm water improvements in the next five to six years while another $10.8m would be used for projects in year’s seven to nine.
Councillor Iona Pannett said Tawa’s flooding needed to be addressed because it was only going to get worse.
‘‘It shouldn’t be happening, but we know it is around parts of the city and Tawa does have some serious issues.
‘‘We also know that with climate change, those issues are going to get worse. That is a serious issue we are grappling with.’’
At the end of the 10-year development, flooding would no longer threaten residences, Pannett said.
‘‘We envisage that there will be no inundation of water into people’s homes or businesses so that is a bottom line.’’
Other projects in the city meant only the Tawa School improvements could start in the coming months.
‘‘There are other areas of the city that are being flooded so we just need to think about equitable distribution of resources and there’s only so many engineers to do the work.’’
Tawa resident Stuart Macdonald said flooding had been a problem ever since he moved to the area 10 years ago.
‘‘Every time there’s persistent, heavy rain, the stream comes up and almost bursts the banks particularly if the intake going under [Tawa School] isn’t clear.’’
The risk flooding posed to kids and residents was serious, Macdonald said.
‘‘This is a major health and safety risk. Not only can the school get flooded with kids in it, but our houses can get flooded.
‘‘Our concern would be that it’s a known risk and it’s not particularly expensive to deal with, so it needs to be dealt with to protect the kids and teachers in the school and at the same time protect us.’’
Tawa resident and northern ward Councillor Malcolm Sparrow said Tawa would be waiting too long for a flooding fix under this plan. ‘‘The problem is, that we thought once this [Wellington Water survey] was completed, they’d get on with the work that needed to be done but it is still five or six years away.
‘‘They’ve put it off a lot further into the future than we were ever expecting would happen.’’