Nelson’s Annual Plan aims to build resilience to severe weather events

Significant recovery costs from August 2022’s severe weather event are one of the key changes in Nelson City Council’s 2023/24 Annual Plan Consultation Document as the organisation looks to increase the city’s resilience to floods and heavy rainfall.

The total estimated cost of recovery for Council is $57.1 million, while an estimated 40% is likely to be covered by insurance and central government contributions. The estimated cost of recovery work in 2023/24 is $11.5 million.

“Council’s recovery work aims to make the city’s infrastructure more resilient and help reduce impact from future similar weather events,” says Nelson Mayor Nick Smith.

“The recovery will take significant funding and effort from the Council and will be completed over six years and paid for over a ten-year period. The work could be done more quickly, but it would be more costly and have a greater risk of not being done to the desired high standard.

“The scale and impact of the August storm, and more recently Cyclone Gabrielle, shows the importance of preparing for and adapting to the effects of climate change. It reinforces the priority Council has given to climate change response and also our plan to build back stronger.”

Of the $11.5m earmarked in this year’s plan, there are several large scale Three Waters projects including stormwater upgrades for Devenish Place and Cleveland Terrace, both of which bore the brunt of the damage caused by the storm.

Work will also start this year to improve resilience at the Water Treatment Plant.

“Nelson’s water treatment plant survived intact during the weather event,” says Mayor Nick. “But that was not the case in Gisborne during Cyclone Gabrielle where the treatment plant failed and people were not able to drink water from their taps. That’s a scenario we want to protect against here.”

Key works in 2023/24:

• $525,000 to improve resilience at Water Treatment Plant
• $240,000 on wastewater improvement
• $930,000 on a stormwater upgrade for Days Track Catchment 
• $1.9m on stormwater upgrades (including Devenish Place and Cleveland Terrace)
• $2.8m on flood protection.

Consultation on the Annual Plan Consultation Document opens on 29 March and closes 30 April. Nelsonians can make a submission by filling out the survey at nelson.govt.nz, writing to us, or by phone on 03 546 0200.

People submitting online will be able to read the consultation document in ten different languages and also use our new tool for making a video submission.