New Zealand Local Government Funding Agency is pleased to announce it has approved a Green and Social Loan to Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) for its Infrastructure Resilience Programme - North Island Weather Event (NIWE), under the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience category.
The Hawke’s Bay region was among the hardest hit by Cyclone Gabrielle, which left a significant impact across the Hawke’s Bay region: lives were lost, families displaced, and the primary sector (vital to region’s economy) was devasted.
This event left key flood protection infrastructure managed by HBRC severely damaged, and in some cases no longer fit for purpose. HBRC is now tasked to rebuild, strengthen, and future-proof flood mitigation systems so its communities are safer, stronger, and more resilient to climate change.
HBRC’s approach has been to create a NIWE programme of works, broken down into eleven key projects, each requiring a bespoke solution and tailored to its community’s unique needs and climate challenges. This programme is an important part of strengthening the region’s resilience, with the key goal of moving properties classified as Category 2C to Category 1, enabling landowners to rebuild, improve their insurability, restore value to their properties, and move forward.
HBRC Chair Sophie Siers has extended Council’s gratitude to LGFA for its financial support of the NIWE programme.
“There is a synergy between what LGFA and HBRC are undertaking with the NIWE flood resilience programme in terms of its social improvements and the environmental benefits these important projects will deliver to our communities in Hawke’s Bay,” says Chair Siers.
LGFA has financed Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s portion of this programme with it being the first combined programme of works approved under LGFA’s Green and Social Loan programme.
One of the 11 projects within the programme, the Waiohiki Project, is a stopbank focused on mitigating the impact of floodwaters on the local marae and community.