Senior reporter Deena Coster revisits how the world’s climate crisis is knocking on the door of a tiny Taranaki beach community where time is the enemy.
A tarot card prediction of a “life-rich” existence in a house by the sea came true for Stephen Sait.
The endless horizon line and stunning sea views are vistas he wakes up to every day.
“It’s just a dream,” the Waitara East Beach resident says.
The slice of Taranaki coastline, part of the Rohutu block, serves as his backyard and playground – the place where he has indulged his passions for surfing, fishing and environmentalism for a decade.
In that time, the seven-hectare beach front spot has seen people come and go, but the forces of nature and the changing climate have left the biggest impression, with metres of land already lost to the sea.
Five homes are at risk of being red-stickered and ruled uninhabitable after the next big storm.
While land trustees and council officials are scrambling for solutions, this is a challenge faced along the entirety of Taranaki’s 295 kilometres of coastline, in other parts of Aotearoa, and across the world, as the impacts of climate change shape not only the way we live, but where.
The damage to areas such as Waitara East Beach, and what can be done to stem it, has been under the spotlight of the Taranaki Daily News for years.
The land loss to the ocean year-on-year has become increasingly stark, and residents have taken matters into their own hands to protect their possessions.
READ MORE:
* Sea level rise: One coastal community gets a seawall, another retreats
* Living on the Edge: What climate change means for Taranaki
* Waitara’s community leaders want an independent engineering opinion on solutions to East Beach erosion
* Further erosion concerns for Taranaki coastline following wild weather
Makeshift fences fashioned out of stacked tractor tyres, or large plastic containers, encased in framing and fixed with poured cement are some ideas crafted to create a barrier from the battering sea.
Coastal erosion has been a longstanding issue at the Rohutu block, and it is being accelerated by the climate crisis.
A 1995 report for the Waitangi Tribunal outlined how the area spanned 22 acres [almost nine hectares] in 1902 and 1916.
However, by 1958, after the section was partitioned, Rohutu was reduced by about two hectares, with the explanation put down to erosion.
The prospect of facing up to losing more of the land block – which is one of a few sections in the region in Māori ownership – was a sad one for Rohutu trust chairperson Bridget Taylor.
“We know it’s going to get worse.”
Within the year, the trust hopes to develop a plan with New Plymouth District Council (NPDC), not to fight against the forces which drive erosion, but to reduce its impacts as best it can, and protect the land left behind.
Aside from the trustees, leaseholders and residents, Taylor says there are other interests in Rohutu from people with whakapapa bonds, or historical ties, to the area.
This relates to what exists below the sandy surface, too. Taylor said there had been at least two urupā on the block. Unfortunately, one had already been washed out to sea.
“We have to respect those things first.”
The trust is also supporting the residents living in red-zoned homes.
Leases for five affected properties, which sit along the sea front, have not been renewed, but Taylor says eviction is off the table due to the current housing crisis.
Housing will always be a part of the block, so the plan under development with NPDC will have that as a focus, Taylor says.
“It’s a strong community, and we want to keep it as it is.”
In April, a report prepared for Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) detailed climate change projections and the impact locally.
Along with temperature rise, it explained how extreme rainfall events would worsen over time, leading to an increased risk of flooding and land degradation through slips and coastal erosion.
Ongoing sea level rise would contribute to coastal flooding and habitat loss.
The report also mooted some health impacts – the physical toll of living in damp homes, and the mental strain caused by stress and worry, including covering the costs of fixing any damage.
There would also be the issue of displacement, the reports says, where people will have to move.
For some, this could mean leaving properties they have called home for years, or in the case of the Rohutu block, working hard to protect land owned for generations.
Recent strikes, spearheaded by thousands of New Zealand secondary school students at protests around the country, have been the latest rallying call for action to address the drivers of climate change.
Recently, New Plymouth district councillors copped criticism for deciding against putting any of its $7.9 million of Better Off Grant funding under the Three Waters reform towards two projects pitched at combatting climate change.
Action around climate change, and the role councils could play, has played a lukewarm role at best in the local body election campaign.
Most mayoral candidates vying to lead New Plymouth believe council needs to do more to address climate change, but there are mixed views from those vying for the rest of the seats at the decision-making table.
Of the 24 TRC candidates looking to nab one of 10 spots on the region’s environmental watchdog body, only two made explicit mention of climate change in their written blurbs to potential voters.
Meanwhile, NPDC manager planning Juliet Johnson says a contribution from the Deep South Challenge fund will enable input from Massey University staff to feed into the plan currently being developed with the Rohutu trustees.
The plan will consider short, medium and long-term actions to deal with existing and potential risks, along with climate change predictions.
Johnson says it is too early to say what this might mean for the landowners and residents.
But what no-one has in this scenario is the luxury of time. And it’s a pressure not lost on Taylor and her fellow trustees.
She says without meaningful action, sections labelled safe today at Rohutu “could quickly become a red zone”.
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