Video: Development in Hawke’s Bay’s hazard zones needs to stop, says region's top emergency controller
Hawke’s Bay’s long-term risk reduction is of concern and development in hazard zones needs to stop, says the region’s top emergency controller.
Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Controller Ian Macdonald, who has led Hawke’s Bay’s emergency response to the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, says that while he is not the decision-maker when it comes to future planning, he still believes things need to be done differently.
“In Hawke’s Bay, we have a number of hazards which intersect everything from tsunami, earthquake, to flooding. Where those hazards intersect, you've got to ask yourself the question, ‘Why are we allowing for people to build, put infrastructure in those places?’ As I said, not my decision. But definitely, we advocate for that.”
Macdonald stops short of banning building in flood zones, but says that each case needs to be treated on its own merits.
“I think we definitely need to be aware of things like climate change and that hazard is going to only increase over time. We need to make sure that we are actually doing things for the future, so we need to be thinking out to future generations. What's Hawke’s Bay going to look like in a hundred years if we have close to two metres worth of sea level rise.”
The Group Controller believes a long term view needs to be taken and where hazards can be mitigated, that should be taken.
“There's always the risk. We have good stop bank systems here in Hawke’s Bay. They've been here for a long time. There's been a lot of development in behind those stop banks, but those stop banks have failed in some places.”
“I think that we need to make sure that when we put in place mitigation, that when the events of another a hundred years’ time, those stop banks that we build now probably will they still be able to provide a level of protection to those new houses and things that are built behind them.”
Macdonald says that while they prepare for events as best as they can, he says the relationships between his team and the councils and other central government agencies is what is important.
“If you've got strong relationships with the emergency services, strong relationships between the councils and other central government agencies, when you're dealing with a catastrophic event such as this that you actually are able to adjust and make decisions quickly given the circumstances because you trust each other, you have the relationships in place.”
“This response was a good example of that. The relationships that we have with Hawke’s Bay Emergency Services in particular, we're always in the readiness phase. We are working with them consistently on this stuff.”
“The relationships were strong. So we were able to stand up a response and adjust it quickly to the circumstances that we were faced with as the information came in and people trusted each other to get on and do the job.”
A key component in dealing with future natural disasters is Climate Chance, says Macdonald
“When we do our risk assessments, we are building in climate change into those assessments and we'll continue to do that based on the advice of the government, obviously around what the levels are looking like.”
“It's pretty clear that what we are facing is sea level rise, increased storminess, more events like this into the future. We need to be able to adapt to it, to those impacts.”
