It was with emotion—and relief—that I watched the Hawke’s Bay Independent Flood Review present its report to the Regional Council this week. 

Among the 47 considered and clear recommendations of the expert panel is a call for a new approach to living with rivers: “When designing new flood management works or improvements to existing systems, HBRC should consider the evolving best practice of ‘Making Room for the River’”. 

This idea – of giving rivers enough space to flood safely and function more naturally – is recognised as the preferred way of keeping communities safe and rivers healthy. It’s a nature-based solution to a problem we’ve largely engineered ourselves into.

Having watched the flooding in Hawke’s Bay from afar, as my family evacuated the suburb I still consider home, I’ve spent the last year championing “making room for rivers” as a solution not only for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, but also for councils and communities around Aotearoa. 

I’ve talked about how encroachment into our floodplains and riverbeds has increased flood risk and degraded the health of our freshwater. And how floods and freshwater quality have both been worsened by native forest loss and invasive pests in the hills, and by wetland loss in valleys and floodplains. 

When they hear about how our endless unsympathetic engineering of rivers and landscapes has cost us, everyone I’ve spoken to agrees that we must change the way we live with our rivers, manage our landscapes, and protect our communities. In fact, many people and communities have seen first-hand that we have no real choice—if we can’t make room for our rivers, they’ll take it.

While the Independent Flood Review is a challenging read, the current Regional Council should not feel alone or solely responsible. Decades of issues and oversights have compounded to create the situation we’re in – and Hawke’s Bay is by no means the only region where these findings and recommendations will be relevant. 

Making room for rivers, keeping our communities out of high-risk flood zones, and addressing inequities in flood protection are lessons that apply across Aotearoa. What is critical is that HBRC, its councillors, senior leadership, and staff, and local Members of Parliament move to make this happen, and that communities support and push them to do so.

Making room for rivers will make our communities safer, saving lives and livelihoods. We can also have cleaner and healthier freshwater, more swimming holes, better river access, more riparian planting (and more native bird and insect life with it), and healthier populations of native fish like tuna/eels and īnanga/whitebait. 

Making room for the Ngaruroro River could help restore groundwater levels under the Heretaunga Plains at no economic cost, according to recent research by scientists at Lincoln Agritech and NIWA, in partnership with Ngāti Kahungunu. This would increase water security, reliability, and drought resilience for those in our community who use irrigation. 

While the value of most of these benefits are unquantifiable, making room for rivers is likely to save money in the long term through lower maintenance and engineering costs, potentially lower insurance premiums, and reduced repair and clean-up costs by avoiding future disaster. 

The long-term benefits and savings to Hawke’s Bay communities and New Zealanders more broadly are well worth any upfront cost. It will be offset by orders of magnitude. This is the vision that HBRC must develop with its communities and illustrate to central Government.

In reimagining our landscapes and making room for rivers, we can make change worth it for all New Zealanders, restoring our environment and reducing the risk of future disasters.

The recommendations of the Independent Flood Review represent an opportunity for a step change in how we live with rivers. They can be a catalyst to put native forest back on hillsides and restore wetlands in our valley floors. An opportunity to create diverse and healthy landscapes, to protect our communities, and to provide certainty for farmers, orchardists, and winegrowers. 

It is now up to HBRC councillors and senior leadership to take the first step. Rest assured you will not be alone. Ngāti Kahungunu have been calling for change for a long time. Local communities, other councils, Forest & Bird, and even insurance companies know that change is needed and have been calling for it too. And if local MPs or central Government aren’t there alongside you, Forest & Bird will be there to push them.

Let us know where you want to start. 

Tom Kay is Forest & Bird’s Freshwater Advocate based in Wellington. He has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and a Master of Science in Ecology, and grew up in Taradale, where much of his family still lives. He has been leading Forest & Bird’s Making Room for Rivers / Tukua Ngā Awa Kia Rere campaign since 2022.