Mike has X-factor

and Karapiro can lessen the impact of heavy rain in the Waipā catchment on communities further downstream. When heavy rain is forecast for the Waipā catchment, extra water can be released via the Karapiro gates to create space in the upper river system before the Waipā flood peak arrives. Then when it does arrive, that space created in the upper catchment can be utilised to hold water back to minimise the impact of the Waipā flood flow on the lower Waikato communities.

Prior to the establishment of the integrated flood protection scheme, significant flooding was not uncommon in the lower reaches of the river. A particularly severe flood in 1953 saw the main highway flooded and the railway closed for two weeks.

Control of the Tongariro diversions, the Taupo gates and the Lower Waikato/ Waipā control schemes all play a part in the management of the overall system, depending on which parts of the catchment are affected. While a whole of catchment approach is taken to ensure risks and effects are appropriately balanced throughout the catchment, this does not eliminate flood risks, and in the case of sustained and prolonged rainfall events, our ability to manage this becomes limited.

The increasing frequency and intensity of flood events, combined with increasing population growth and development means the provision of hazard information, land use policies, regulations and river and catchment management related activities all need to be understood within the context of managing flood risks within a whole catchment.

• For more details go to teawwamutu.news.nz

Pirongia’s Mike Bowe will carry Waikato’s hopes in Feilding at the CablePrice National Excavator Operator Competition.

Bowe is one of 13 champions from around New Zealand whose excavator skills will be pushed to the limit over a series of challenges.

They will include traversing a trench and digging around pipelines, using his 13 tonne digger to slam dunk a basketball into a twostorey concrete pipe using an excavator’s bucket, and a slalom course.

Manfeild Park will host the competition tomorrow (Friday) and on Saturday.

Bowe qualified at the Waikato regional competition in December. The Bowe Brothers Excavating Ltd owner-operator has won the Waikato title four times.

“I know how much work goes into the nationals, it’s a lot of work and a lot of preparation to build up the skills for the competition,” he said.

“That’s mental preparation too – every time I jump in the digger between now and nationals, I’m thinking about how I can improve, make things better and faster and be prepared the best way I can be. I want to be there and take out the title.”

The national excavator operator competition was founded in the mid1990s by CCNZ Manawatu Branch as the brainchild of local contractors Graeme Blackley and Grant Smith.

CCNZ Chief Executive Alan Pollard said the operators are the elite of the country’s excavator operating community and many will have been involved in the response to Cyclone Gabrielle.