Schools impacted by repeat flooding

Repeated flooding is causing major headaches for local schools – some have been flooded time and time again since early last year.

Although the Ministry of Education is working with schools to find solutions, for some on the Hibiscus Coast their location in low lying areas near waterways make that especially challenging in the face of climate change.

Ōrewa College principal Greg Pierce says a number of classrooms have been impacted by four weather events in the last 12 months, and the school closed because of health and safety concerns. He says one of the worst affected areas is the Arts & Events Centre. The building, which opened in 2009, is used by the community (as well as the college) for events and performances, and is a source of income. Its carpet tiles have had to be replaced three times and regibbing required as water came up through the drains and ran inside.

Pierce says the college had a small number of sandbags onsite but after the Anniversary weekend floods, Bunnings donated a trailer load, which are now deployed whenever heavy rain is forecast.

Even with those in place, the Arts & Events Centre flooded again in last month’s rain.

Pierce says engineers brought in by the Ministry are currently working to improve drainage at the college, in an effort to prevent significant flooding occurring again. “These are medium term solutions, such as extra drainage along one edge of the driveway,” he says. “We hope that will be completed by Term 4.”

He says although the college was located alongside the estuary, “perhaps unwisely, given hindsight”, there is no discussion around managed retreat. The college is in the final design stages of a new 12 classroom block which is needed because of substantial roll growth. The building is going to be on the main front field opposite the Arts and Events Centre.

Construction was due to start in Term 4. However, Pierce says there could be delays to this, as the Ministry reviews

Wentworth also flooded

spending to prioritise repairs and rebuilds.

The Ministry has established a National Flood Risk Management programme, which included a list of 103 schools nationwide assessed as likely to be at risk of flooding due to sea level rise.

Ōrewa College, along with Ōrewa Beach Primary and Whangaparāoa Primary are on this list.

Red Beach School is not on a flood plain, or near a waterway, and is therefore not on the Ministry’s flood prone areas list.

However it has flooded four times, starting in March last year. The problem, Principal Julie Hepburn says, is inadequate drains on Albert Hall Drive, where the school is located. The school has been flooded extensively when water sheets down from the road, entering buildings – in some cases the sheer force popped low lying windows in.

In various parts of the school, carpets and joinery were only just replaced before the next flood.

Hepburn says the Anniversary Day floods were particularly bad, and last month’s floods saw the school evacuated and closed.

“It’s a very real health and safety issue each time,” she says. “Coming off the road, it’s classed as ‘black water’, so everything has to be sanitised. “It is clear the drains are not coping – there has been a lot of infill housing and development in Red Beach and the existing infrastructure is inadequate,” she says.

She lodged a complaint with Auckland Council and says the responses so far make her angry. “Council does not seem to care, and appears unwilling to do anything about improving the drainage on the road,” she says. The school is working with the Ministry of Education and engineers on possible solutions, which Hepburn says are complex.

“We are doing our bit, keeping all the drains around the school clear and the Ministry of Education is supporting our efforts. Council needs to step forward too.”

The relatively newly built Wentworth College and nearby Primary (opened in 2003 and 2008 respectively) in Gulf Harbour had to be closed last month after severe flooding. Water quickly covered Wentworth College’s grounds and entered the school’s computer room and technology workshop. Students had to wade through ankle deep water to get to the bathrooms, and there were leaks in the gym. However, this was minor compared to Wentworth Primary, which was flooded throughout its original building. Remediation work is continuing. Wentworth did not wish to comment.

The strategy has nine initiatives including things like stream rehabilitation, community led flood resilience, culvert upgrades and overland flow path management.

Healthy Waters head of planning, Nick Vigar, said the strategy needs to have a strong community focus.

“There have been calls from the community generally for better preparedness for these events and so what we are proposing is a criticality-based approach where we go into at-risk flood catchments and have an increased maintenance regime,” Vigar said

He said some of the work would involve private property owners where council would need to balance “lowering risk for communities and intervening where needed”.

Mayor Wayne Brown said part of the strategy would be “preventing dumb stuff from happening”.

“Lots of people did not realise that the solid fences they put in were actually threatening their own houses,” Mayor Brown said. “The number of solid fences directly across or altering the overland flow paths was quite horrendous.”

He said the indicative cost of the strategy is likely to be in excess of $1 billion over six years which council was unable to bear alone.

Cr Chris Darby said a lot of the strategy appeared to be basic works that council should already be doing.

“Stream rehab focusing on high-risk streams, daylighting (turning piped streams back into waterways), and community engagement – they are all pretty basic,” Cr Darby said.

He said catchment management planning had been stopped under Healthy Waters Lifecycle Planning manager Craig Mcilroy. Mcilroy’s management and wanted to know why.

Mcilroy responded that the risk appetite for flooding had changed after recent events.

“We live in a real world where we have all been subject to financial constraints. I have advocated as eloquently as I can – arguing for larger budgets to do work,” Mcilroy said. “We probably underestimated the risk [of flooding]– which is why we are going through what I call a reprioritisation programme.”

The strategy is expected to give more detailed information on flood risks by specific areas which Mcilroy said would be available in the consultation material.

The consultation material will come back to the Governing Body for approval in June with consultation expected to run for a month from mid-July.