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Otago Daily Times
13-07-2025
- Climate
- Otago Daily Times
Fearing the next big rain
The clouds gathered late last week, looming and lowering above Dunedin. The weather forecasters warned another spell of heavy rain was on the way. That was the story last Friday, when people around the city began preparing in case the predicted fall brought the kind of flooding rain which often causes problems in South Dunedin. For the residents of one stretch of Surrey St, in Caversham, the forecast of rain is cause for even greater concern than for others on the flat. That's because they have a history of being flooded out by water and sewage. On Saturday, the residents' worst fears were once again realised when its wastewater system could no longer cope with the rain. Atrociously, human excrement was flowing out of a manhole and on to the street between Hillside Rd and South Rd. Surrey Street Flood Action Group convener Lynne Newell disputed the Dunedin City Council's statement that it had taken measures before the bad weather to make sure the system was not overwhelmed. She pointed out residents were forced to go to the toilet in bowls and bags after their toilets stopped working. The sewage in the street was coming from the hill suburbs, she said, and it happened every time there was significant rain. The council had told her and neighbours for the past 20 years a fix was close at hand, but they were still waiting. The response on Saturday from Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich was underwhelming, saying residents would be able to use their toilets once the rain eased. He also reiterated that something had been done, with non-return valves installed to ensure toilets did not fill up with wastewater during heavy rain. In a recent submission on the South Dunedin Future Plan, the action group says being swamped with sewage is an appalling health risk and something the council has "a moral duty" to address immediately, within the next six to 12 months. They say it is not due to climate change — "this problem has not started or worsened by rapid climate change onset" — but rather undersize pipes and stormwater system. The residents want an apology from the city council for delaying flood prevention works after the June 2015 flood — which they say directly contributed to the floods last October. Expecting a neighbourhood to go through this kind of filthy experience every time a period of heavy and/or prolonged rain hits is grossly unfair. The damage to residents' mental health and resilience, not to mention pride in their street and property values, is reprehensible. This problem needs to be cleaned up now. No more excuses. Run it out of town What could be more stupid than the current so-called "craze" of Run It Straight? A person holding a ball has to run directly at an opponent, who is sprinting towards them at full speed, and is not allowed to sidestep or avoid the predestined collision. Surprise, surprise, participants are getting badly injured, even killed. A month ago, 19-year-old Ryan Satterthwaite from Palmerston North died from a severe head injury after a backyard tackle game with friends. Two people taking part in a Run It "championship league" in Auckland last month were knocked out, with one having a seizure, and it was estimated one in every four participants were concussed. The latest incident involved former Kiwis forward Kevin Proctor. The rugby league player was knocked unconscious at a tournament in Dubai over the weekend. Surely we now know enough about the short- and long-term dangers of concussion and head injuries that those most influential should be condemning and stopping such madness. Rugby players, coaches, administrators and sports doctors are far wiser these days about the repercussions of blows to the head. Health experts and trauma clinicians are in no doubt Run It Straight needs to be banned. In the New Zealand Medical Journal , three specialists said its continued promotion was "medically indefensible and ethically unjustifiable". They want councils, schools and clubs to ban events, sports stars to stop endorsing it, social media sites to remove content and public-health campaigners to outline the potentially terrible consequences. Where are the intelligent role models among the All Blacks, the Black Ferns and the Warriors when it comes to telling people they're mugs to get involved in such a life-threatening activity?
Otago Daily Times
29-06-2025
- Climate
- Otago Daily Times
Sewage spews into street
Residents of a South Dunedin street resorted to defecating in bags after its wastewater system was overwhelmed during the heavy rain on Saturday. A section of Surrey St between Hillside Rd and South Rd was covered in excrement that flowed out of a manhole. Surrey Street Flood Action Group convener Lynne Newell said elderly residents in the street were having to "pee in a bowl and poo into a bag" because their toilets were out of action from about 1am on Saturday. The city council has said it took proactive measures ahead of the weather but Ms Newell said the situation got worse as the day proceeded and the rain continued to pour down. Residents were unable to use their toilets because the sewerage system in the street was overloaded with sewage coming from the hill suburbs, she said. "I was lucky that I've got a [non-return] valve so it doesn't come up and spew over my toilet bowl, but the thing is I still have to use a bucket to pee in and a bag to poo in — it's like a Third World country." She said sewage water overflowed into properties and on to the street every time there was significant rainfall. "The roads might not flood but the sewerage can't cope with what's happening." The council had been telling her a solution was around the corner for the past 20 years, she said. "I have bashed my head against a brick wall for ten months and nothing is getting promised or fixed." The ODT saw human waste and menstrual products in the water on Saturday. Ms Newell said her wastewater services began working again late Saturday night. Speaking on Saturday, Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said the residents' bathrooms would be usable again as soon as the rain eased. He said it was incorrect to say nothing had been done to address the issue as non-return valves were installed to make sure residents' bathrooms were not back-filled with wastewater. Funding had also been approved for wastewater upgrades in the council's nine-year plan and there were three pipe upgrades in South Dunedin that would provide improvements for Surrey St, he said. A pipe that went through Caversham tunnel needed to be removed and its removal was funded and included in the nine-year plan. Council chief executive Sandy Graham said overall, the network coped well with the weekend's rain. There were some areas of "isolated ponding" and some manholes surging "slightly" but the council received no reports of wastewater discharging into properties, she said. "Due to pressure on the network some toilets may have been unable to be flushed for a short period overnight, however they should still have been usable. "During the rain event the mayor and staff were in regular contact with Ms Newell and we will follow up with her again to hear her suggestions for improvement. "We took a proactive response to the rain event by providing sandbags, draining the network, ensuring contractors and staff were checking the network and responding promptly to any issues and communicating regularly." Ms Graham said $44.2m had been set aside in the nine-year plan capital budget for further flood alleviation work in South Dunedin, which included "no regrets" improvements to be implemented quickly. On Saturday, the council climate and city growth manager Scott MacLean said teams responded to isolated incidents and inspected the network for damage and flooding. Temporary road closures were put in place and, with the exception of the Logan Park artificial turfs, all council grounds were closed to the public. Coastal Dunedin bore the brunt of the weekend rain — about 25-50mm, with other parts of Otago getting 20-50mm, the Otago Regional Council said in a statement early on Saturday afternoon. "Flood infrastructure is doing its job and performing as expected. "There were no significant issues overnight."
Otago Daily Times
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
DCC negligent: flood action group
The council has been accused of negligence and deliberate appeasement tactics over South Dunedin flood management. Speaking at hearings for the council's nine-year plan and Local Water Done Well — government reform on the future delivery of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater — Surrey St Flood Action Group convener Lynne Newell said residents had been seeking justice for years on the issue. "We counted over 30 years of fruitless submissions and millions of dollars spent commissioning engineering firms to investigate the waste and stormwater situation in South Dunedin and further afield," she said. "They designed engineering solutions to our problems that could have had us drying out by now, but they were ignored." Ms Newell said the South Dunedin Future programme was a deliberate "delaying tactic" to appease residents. The joint programme between the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Regional Council is investigating seven options to respond to climate change and flooding problems in South Dunedin, which range from boosting flood defences to large-scale relocation of homes and infrastructure. The cost of options range from $2 billion to $7.1b. "Nothing new has been learnt from this costly project as many of the people in South Dunedin know," Ms Newell said. "All they have come up with is unknowable, estimated costs, an option of mass exodus of people to God knows where and leave the best land in the city to ducks and eels." She said by diverting wastewater and stormwater from the hill suburbs to South Dunedin, the council was knowingly risking the health of residents. Justice and a public apology was needed for "decades of putting [Surrey St] residents and ultimately the whole of South Dunedin at risk of serious disease and possibly deaths". She said flooding risk across Dunedin and the Taieri was not caused by climate change — it was instead caused by land impermeability from increased housing development, population density and a decaying piping and pumping network system. "At the end of the day, the most important thing a council has to do is ensure that you've got clean drinking water, that you're taking away the sewage and that people can travel safely around the city. "That's your core business — all the other frills are nice-to-have. She also asked for the council to implement a "mana-enhancing" media policy for South Dunedin, to give residents and business owners respect and promote the area as a valuable flat land asset.
