Local Government Minister Simon Watts, who also holds the climate change portfolio, said the project represented more than infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a community protection project. It\u2019s a resilience project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis investment, supported by central government, will make a massive difference for our community and the community based here.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople live locally, they live here. This is their home, and it has been for a very long time, and we want that to be the case in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe infrastructure that we\u2019ve built here will protect those communities, households and this marae \u2026 and that\u2019s important not only today, but it\u2019s important for future generations, and that\u2019s a priority of this Government.”<\/p>\n
The opening ceremony at Waiohiki Marae included speeches, native tree planting and acknowledgments of the recovery journey the community has faced since Gabrielle.<\/p>\n
Among those attending were Napier MP Katie Nimon, Tukituki MP Catherine Wedd, Napier Mayor Richard McGrath, Hastings Mayor Wendy Schollum and Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council chairwoman Sophie Siers.<\/p>\n
Siers said the stopbank represented an important emotional milestone for the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually see something that restores what Cyclone Gabrielle took away from us.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we didn\u2019t just lose lives, lands, homes and infrastructure \u2013 as if that wasn\u2019t enough \u2013 we lost something much less visible, and that was our sense of safety in this community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said all 11 flood resilience projects should be completed by June 2027.<\/p>\n
Nimon said the floods had led to changes in infrastructure planning and emergency management.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of those things is the reform in the Emergency Management Act, which is going through at the moment, and we have learned so much,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are adapting to what we\u2019re seeing happen within the climate. We are adding height to stopbanks … New bridges being rebuilt are going to be higher than the ones that were before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nimon said while projects such as the stopbank could not erase the trauma caused by Gabrielle, they could help rebuild confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never going to take away the fear of the rain falling, and we\u2019ve got to work to make people feel safer in the environment that they\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mana Ahuriri Trust chairman Te Kaha Hawaikirangi, who lives across the road from Waiohiki Marae, said about 160 people sheltered at the marae during the disaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was one of the very few areas that didn\u2019t get flooded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mana Ahuriri Trust chairman Te Kaha Hawaikirangi at Waiohiki Marae, which became a hub for the community during Cyclone Gabrielle flooding in 2023. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n
Hawaikirangi said about 90% of homes in the village were impacted, including his own household.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ended up with maybe one rubbish bag of things when we were evacuated … and that was for me, my wife and our five kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the housing in Waiohiki is all wh\u0101nau lands, so we have lived here for 600 years, and to be displaced, even for a year or two, it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now back home, Hawaikirangi said the new stopbank brought reassurance to the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives us peace of mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps us sleep a little bit better at night if it\u2019s heavy rain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local Government Minister Simon Watts, who also holds the climate change portfolio, said the project represented more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,1561,13982,33960,1976,111,43,139,69,59966,2680,1881,224860,78574],"class_list":["post-440375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-as","tag-bay","tag-continues","tag-gabrielle","tag-hawkes","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-officially","tag-opens","tag-recovery","tag-stopbank","tag-waiohiki"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}