Regional Council welcomes additional government funding to speed up flood mitigation work programme

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is welcoming a generous allocation of nearly $2.2 million from the government’s Cyclone Recovery Capability Fund to accelerate progress on urgent flood mitigation in six areas across the region.

The extra $2,180,000 is available to be used for additional project managers for flood resilience work, dedicated community engagement advisors, and staff to accelerate processing of consents.

Regional Council Chair Hinewai Ormsby thanked the government for the much-needed funding boost, saying “The additional support will help speed up progress on the urgent flood mitigation work we have underway in partnership with Government.”

“We know how important it is to our communities to have these flood mitigation projects completed as quickly as possible, and this additional funding should help us achieve that for them.”

“We appreciate people in the affected communities of Wairoa, Whirinaki, Waiohiki, Omahu, Pākowhai and Pōrangahau who are waiting for these projects to be finished so they can have more certainty about the way forward. We hope this will help reassure them that we are doing everything we can to complete the projects as soon as possible.”

The Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery Mark Mitchell today announced funding of $4,550,000 for four councils – Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the Wairoa, Hastings, and Central Hawke’s Bay district councils.

The Cyclone Recovery Capability Fund was established through Budget 2024 to support the councils in affected regions with additional capability to speed up delivery of critical recovery functions including voluntary buyouts, flood protection works, landslip remediation, and local transport infrastructure.

The extra funding will enable Regional Council and its partners to accelerate the delivery of the flood mitigation projects in the region funded through the North Island Weather Events (NIWE) budget. These projects include the Upper Tukituki Scheme, the Wairoa River Scheme, the Heretaunga Plains Scheme and the Whirinaki Resilience Project. The projects aim to restore and enhance the flood resilience of the affected communities, protect the productive land and infrastructure, and improve the environmental outcomes of the waterways. Regional Council expects to complete most of the projects by June 2026, subject to resource consent processes and weather conditions.

For updates on the individual NIWE-funded flood mitigation programmes, visit: https://www.hbrc.govt.nz/hawkes-bay/projects/restoring-flood-resilience/

21 August 2024

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