Pre-Election Report: Climate Change and Resilience

Published on 02 October 2025

A more detailed version of this release is available in Waitaki District Council’s Pre-Election Report.

Climate change is already affecting Waitaki with more extreme weather like longer droughts, heavier rain causing floods, and more coastal erosion. These changes bring new risks like landslides, water shortages, flooding, wildfires, and changes to lakes and groundwater. These are also financial risks because of insurance and replacement costs.

Coastal areas are especially at risk with rising sea levels and stronger storms causing more erosion and endangering land and infrastructure. Much of the district's infrastructure wasn't built to handle the current weather patterns.

For example, the Orwell Street Pump Station in Ōamaru is near the coast and could be at risk if erosion protection fails, possibly needing relocation in the future. It's part of the wastewater network for Ōamaru, Kakanui, and Weston, so it's a key piece of infrastructure.

Climate change is also making water supply and demand less predictable, with hotter temperatures and changing rain patterns putting more pressure on our water network. Roads, water pipes, and wastewater systems are likely to be damaged by extreme weather, as we've seen elsewhere in the country recently, making planning and funding for necessary upgrades more complicated.

The Council is taking action to make infrastructure and services more resilient to climate change. This includes assessing how heavy rain, drought, and rising sea levels affect stormwater systems, water supply, wastewater, and roads, and finding ways to protect these systems for the future.

The Council's Annual and Long-Term Plans involve consulting our community on the actions the Council takes in the future to improve Waitaki's resilience.

Consulting with the community means that the Mayor and Councillors can make decisions by balancing community needs and wants, expert advice, legal requirements, strategies and plans, financial responsibility, and the risks and fairness of that decision.

ENDS

media@waitaki.govt.nz