WHANGAREI FLOOD PROBLEM

Northern Advocate, 3 February 1936, Page 4

WHANGAREI FLOOD PROBLEM

The flood experienced during the week-end should serve to direct attention to the need for inquiry as to whether anything can be done to protect the town from the loss which such a visitation entails. Admittedly, the recent flood was of unusually severe character, and of dominionwide dimensions, but in all respects the development was largely a repetition of that which has marked floods in previous years, cause and effect being practically the same. The coincidental combination of phenomenal rainfall swelling streams and creeks, and high tide hacking up the flood waters until they overflow at vul-

nerable spots, is not likely to happen often, bnt it is always possible, and, as was the- ease dining the past week-end, the result of such a combination may be serious. Caution, therefore, suggests that everything should be done to reduce, as far as possible, the liability to resulting from the combination of flood and tide. This is a matter to which, in our opinion, the Borough .Council should instruct its engineer to give early consideration. It may not be practicable to' eliminate danger, for it must be remembered that the lowlying portions of Whangarei, which have suffered from floods in the past, are little above sea level, and, as a consequence, do not allow streams to retain flood water to the extent that woiild be possible if their banks were high. This is an inherent disability, but other towns similarly situated have overcome such a disability, and Whangarei should grapple with the problem without further delay. It should be ascertained to what extent a visitation such as that just recorded, or, rather, What may be called an ordinary flood, would be shorn of its damaging effects if the Waiarohia

Stream, for example, wore widened and straightened and stopbanks constructed at those points where flood waters are most likely to break away. These points have been revealed time after time. There is also the question of clearing the existing bods of the streams. It is some tim'e now since the clearing of all willows which obstruct streams was ordered; it would be interesting to know exactly how far this work has been done. In our opinion it is urgently necessary to increase the carrying capacity of waterways and to build up their banks where technical knowledge dictates that such building nip is required. Flooding, under exceptional circumstances, may still take place in spite of sudJi precautions, but it will necessarily be of less serious nature,' and of less frequency.