The flooding in Dunedin last year has been revealed to have cost $138 million, resulting in calls to improve the resilience of communities in the wake of natural disasters.
A Resilient New Zealand report from insurance company IAG estimated the cost for Otago's June floods and storm at $138.4 million in economic and social impact, combined with $28.2 million in insurance pay outs.
"It's a very sobering figure and it brings home to us the impact of these kinds of events," Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull says.
Natural disasters cannot be prevented, he says, but optimising and improving Dunedin's infrastructure will help.
As a result of the flooding, the city's mud tanks were completely cleaned out and the malfunctioning screen on the city's pump was replaced.
"The plan now is to look at all of the possible ways that we may be able to enhance the capacity of the infrastructure or of the whole system, really," Mr Cull says.
Dunedin community rallies for flood clean-up
Dunedin South MP Clare Curran says the report is the first real analysis of the impact from the natural disaster and showed the "incoherent and chaotic response" from the city's Civil Defence.
"Given the magnitude of the event, why was their no Civil Defence response or emergency declared given it is estimated more than 1000 homes were flooded?," she asks.
"It took a week for the Dunedin City Council to start door knocking in the area. Businesses were never systematically followed up."
The data collected from the door knocking hasn't been released to the public.
"Nearly a year after this disaster the community is unaware what new measures have been put in place to address this," she says.
Natural disasters cost New Zealand $1.6 billion a year on average which means resilience is of critical importance and should be a core focus, IAG Government & Stakeholder Relations senior manager Bryce Davies says.
"We see successful recovery as being more than just returning to normal -- it's about creating a more resilient community and should provide opportunities to enhance the community's social and natural environments, infrastructure and economy," the Resilient New Zealand report says.
Newshub.
