Photo: LDR / Stephen Forbes
Māngere residents want Auckland Council to fix their blocked drains and take faster action to protect them from future flooding events.
On the night of the Auckland Anniversary weekend flood, Te Ararata stream and stormwater drains overflowed into homes, making Māngere one of the worst-affected suburbs.
A meeting between residents, local ecological restoration groups, Kāinga Ora and council took place on Sunday night to discuss the futureproofing of Māngere's infrastructure for extreme weather.
The meeting comes just four days after it was revealed that more than 15 percent of Kāinga Ora's property portfolio is on flood-prone land.
While the government has earmarked $200 million to improve flood resilience in the Te Ararata catchment, residents voiced concerns that change isn't happening quickly enough - particularly in a suburb where around 10,000 new homes will be built in the next 15 to 20 years.
Some of the solutions proposed included converting land where some of the worst-flooded state houses sit into a three-hectare field to trap flood waters, and the widening of Te Ararata stream.
However, locals questioned whether these plans will be acted upon, when basic infrastructure continued to be undermaintained.
Farasat Shafi Ullah, whose Māngere house was flooded in January, is frustrated that three months after the flood, culverts in the area are still blocked.
He says culverts at the Elmdon Street bridge remained blocked when he checked over the weekend.
"There are three waterways to cross the water -one is half blocked, other is also half blocked, only middle is working ... then you go further down, every side is weed," he said.
He said his family had been anxious, with more extreme weather forecast this week.
Flood damage at a Māngere property in January. Photo: RNZ / Jonty Dine
"We didn't sleep last night. My son was awake the whole night, he said if water will come, what we will do? Nobody is looking [at] how the families are living."
Shafi Ullah, who only purchased his home a year ago, said there had been a lack of communication from officials.
He said he would like the government and council to engage with new homeowners in the area like himself, as well as Kāinga Ora tenants.
A 29-year-old man and his partner, who bought their house in Māngere six months ago, said he wanted more specific information from the council on the plans.
"Seems a bit inept that there are so many houses being built quite literally in a flooded area.
"So the plans they're talking about, yeah, I just want to know exactly where they are, what the roadblocks are, what we can expect, or if it's going to be perpetual consultation."
He said the council should have completed infrastructure upgrades before the building intensification in the area.
Māngere residents meet with officials to discuss the region's water issues. Photo: Lucy Xia / RNZ
Jo Latif, whose home was also flooded in January, also wanted to see more immediate action.
"With climate change, it's going to be a regular thing now … some of these three- to five-year plans sound really great, but we need something now."
Councillor Julie Fairey, who was at the meeting, admitted the council had underinvested in building and maintaining infrastructure.
She said there was sometimes confusion between Healthy Waters, Watercare and Auckland Transport over who is responsible for maintaining stormwater drains, and that some assets have fallen through the cracks.
Meanwhile, Kāinga Ora representatives at the meeting said they were sorry the community engagement process did not start earlier.
They said they would be talking to locals and mana whenua over the next year, as well as monitoring the stream and doing flood modelling in the area.
Kāinga Ora said some of its housing developments on flood-prone areas in Māngere will be paused until further advice from Healthy Waters.
Ecological solutions to flood resilience
Tāne Feary, part of local stream restoration volunteer group Te Ararata Stream Team that organised the community meeting, said climate change adaptation has to be part of the solution.
"There's a lot of work that needs to be done. It's got very low tree cover, and biodiversity is quite impacted, so there's a lot of investment that needs to be done, into the ecological side of it, and climate adaptation planning."
Feary wanted to see Māngere-Ōtāhuhu's climate action plan fast-tracked and released to the public.
"It needs some of the experts, or potentially the housing minister or some key people to come in, basically speed that process up."
Feary said there had been a lot of long-term stresses on the local environment, and the housing intensification called for equally more resources to be dedicated to restoring the environment.
Julia Tuneau, who had been doing stream restoration work in Māngere for over 20 years, said the housing intensification could also provide an opportunity for more ecologically balanced environments.
She said apartments allow for more land area for forests and park land, compared to one-story dwellings. She said these are the "spongy surfaces" needed for flood mitigation, as well as become rich areas for biodiversity.
"The ecological web will function better around those buildings."
Tuneau said bigger stormwater pipes may not be the only answer.
"It has to be on-surface solutions, the parks that will detain the water, the widening of the stream."