The region has been particularly vulnerable to floods with seven major events in the past 20 years inflicting more than $70 million in damage to flood protection systems, not all of which is covered by insurance.
Flood recovery project manager Paula Chapman said the council is seeking greater central government funding to improve insured flood protection assets lost in floods.
They could include stop bank and embankment structures.
Government policy is to replace like with like, rather than pay for improvements.
The estimated bill the council faces to repair river system embankments and protection after Cyclone Debbie is $50 million.
In the Whakatane River catchment farmers and property owners will foot 80% of the bill directly through a targeted flood protection rate and the rest is coming from the council’s general rates.
“Some catchments are in a situation where they have zero debt and can manage the costs, like the Kaituna River scheme.
“Unfortunately for the Whakatane and Rangitaiki catchment schemes the events and costs of repair after them have surpassed the provisions for their maintenance.
“The cost of the repair has been factored into the long-term plan,with assumptions about funding and insurance but there is still a significant gap there,” she said.
The damage incurred from the past events including Cyclone Debbie last year meant the Rangitaiki flood protection system was already carrying $22m debt, and all major schemes collectively carried $32.6m.
That load made it difficult to invest in upgrading assets to offer better protection in future.
“There are a lot of good reasons for our communities to support betterment as so many events have happened over time and we want the schemes to perform better.”
A 2014 council flood protection report cited climate change outcomes of sea water inundation, increased storm intensity and storm frequency as events significantly increasing the cost of capital flood works, such as building higher stop banks.
Managing the high level of internal debt resulting from recent events even back then was acknowledged as a challenge.
With the inevitable arrival of climate change, Chapman said flood systems in all regions needed to exhibit greater resilience, just as farmers in those catchments were also being told to make their farm systems more resilient.
The only way a local authority can get extra funding to improve such assets was if they met special criteria, which her region’s needs do not.
“So it would become a Cabinet decision and you have to have a compelling case for it.”
She was uncertain what the Government’s response was likely to be.
Chapman has much support within her catchment from Opotiki District Council mayor John Forbes.
“When you look back many of these flood schemes were done by central government, through the Ministry of Works.
“I think central government needs to look harder at how it could have joint ventures with local government.
“Many of our schemes protect national infrastructure like roads and rail systems.
“In our case the state highway is protected from two rivers.
“But it is our ratepayers who are effectively paying to protect those assets and nor does the Crown pay rates on any of its land or property in our catchment.”
That was exacerbated in his district where 72% of the land area was either in Crown or Maori reserve land and also not paying rates despite contributing to the flood waters downstream.
“We are told these weather systems are going to become more intense and frequent and we are already witnessing that so we have to not only maintain these assets but improve them to ensure they are future-proofed.”
Chapman’s call for greater resilience was supported by Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty president Darryl Jensen who said farmers would even support a small increase in rates if it meant the replaced system performed better than the last.
“Betterment is really a win-win thing for all concerned and would ensure these schemes are future-proofed,” he said.
