Damned Either Way: West Coast Business Owner On River Threat

Wednesday, 23 July 2025, 3:01 pm
Article: Lois Williams - Local Democracy Reporter

An Okarito businessman says the risk that the famous lagoon and its wildlife will be wiped out by the Waiho River is just one of many environmental risks his South Westland community lives with.

Okarito Kayaks owner Barry Hughes says he had a sleepless night after reading comments yesterday [Tuesday] by Westland mayor Helen Lash, about the potential threat to Lake Mapourika and ultimately Okarito, as the unruly Waiho pushes into the nearby Tartare River.

“But I don’t believe at this point there is much that can be done about it. This isn’t something we can control – this is nature, and on the list of threats to living here from the natural environment, this is only one of them.”

Mrs Lash says a $2.8 million stopbank extension planned to protect her council’s sewerage plant will do nothing to stop the Waiho River heading right, threatening State Highway 6, powerlines, farmland, and nearby lakes.

The Westland mayor has suggested the Regional Council should try to steer the wild river away from the north bank and the Tartare by bulldozing a deep channel or gut down the middle of its sprawling bed.

Mr Hughes, who has served on the West Coast Conservation Board, says all the reports on the Waiho over the years conclude ‘river training’ as it is known, would in the end be futile.

“It’s just not physically possible to confine that river to its bed given the rate of aggradation. The modelling showed we’d have to build walls 14 metres higher by 2050 if we wanted to try. And there is not enough rock in all of South Westland to do that."

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The West Coast Regional Council’s plan to shore up existing stopbanks, hold the line for the next ten years, then gradually release the river to the south over its natural flood plain was the realistic option, long-term, Mr Hughes said.

The Waiho’s avulsion into the Tartare had become rapid at the end of last year, switching focus from the at-risk south bank to the north, he said.

“There’s ecological threats there but also threats to road access alongside Lake Mapourika - there’s nowhere else for State Highway 6 to go and that has to be a concern for NZTA."

“I think no matter what’s done there, someone is going to be damned so to speak - damned if they do and damned if they don’t. “

Accepting risk - including the risk that his kayak business would be wiped out by flood – or the overdue Alpine Fault rupture -was just part of living on the West Coast, Mr Hughes said.

“It’s a choice - both a threat and an opportunity. If you think about why people come here it’s because of this incredible natural environment.

“But that’s created by this rapidly changing geo-morphological landscape - the rising river beds, the rising mountains, the receding glaciers."

“It’s a large reason why we’re here at Okarito. We’re going to wrap up warm and go and sit out on the beach tonight and have a fire with a bunch of local kids all sitting around – there’s not that many places you can still do that."

The West Coast Regional Council has been approached for comment.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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