![]() ![]() ![]() He acknowledged significant community concern about the river's behaviour and asked for their patience while they worked through the solutions. There would be more issues if sediment from the Waiho River was deposited into the neighbouring catchment, which leads to a world-recognised wetland, Lew said. "The Tartare catchment is a much smaller channel than the Waiho and so all sorts of river management issues would accrue if some or the majority of the Waiho flow - the dominant flow path became the Tartare." It appeared that the channel to the Tartare catchment remained dry until there were higher river flows, he said. ![]() The Waiho Bridge was taken out by raging floodwaters in early 2019. "The situation that is of most concern is if during a particular high-flow event, the Waiho River decides to almost permanently shift its flow into the neighbouring catchment, and the initial advice is that would make it very difficult, engineering-wise, to actually get it back into the main channel of the Waiho." But also, the prospect is that the flow of the Waiho River will tip across into the neighbouring catchment," Lew said. "The waste water system for the township of Franz Josef and the oxidation ponds are potentially threatened by the river changing course. West Coast Regional Council chief executive Darryl Lew said they were working out the ramifications of this shift with Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio, Westland District Council, and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. The Waiho (Waiau) River has tended to erode the southern side, and burst its banks in 2019, flooding the rural Waiho Flat community and causing continued uncertainty and stress over its future. This has created an additional channel into the much smaller Tartare catchment on the other side of the town. The main channel of the river has deflected to the true right - towards the northern bank - due to sediment build up. Rural properties and Franz Josef's waste water treatment system may be threatened by the flood-prone Waiho River changing its course. ![]()
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