Iwi and marae integrated into Canterbury flood response

Waatea Team Iwi and marae integrated into Canterbury flood response

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The Prime Minister says efforts to integrate iwi and marae more into emergency management are already bearing fruit with the responses to the Canterbury floods.

Jacinda Ardern and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor toured the region yesterday, with Mr O'Connor declaring the flood an adverse event, triggering the release of $500,000 for the recovery.

Ms Ardern says money is also going into the mayoral relief fund to help with the clean up.

She spoke last week at a national hui of emergency management leaders which discussed the need for Māori to be integrated into planning for emergencies at an early stage, and the capacity of marae to help becomes part of the preparation.

"That means sitting alongside each other so when I was at the emergency operations centre in Christchurch on Monday Ngāi Tahu were there, Hakatere Marae have been the ones sheltering some of the people who have been stranded, so we are already starting to see some of that change in approach but we want to see more of it," Ms Ardern says.

A major focus today is restoring transport links, with load testing being done on a bridge on state highway one south of Ashburton which showed signs of slumping.

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