March 05, 2024
Putea needed to disaster-proof marae
A Māori civil engineering researcher says marae and Māori resilience are being taken for granted by Wellington.
Haukapuanui Vercoe has looked at marae nationwide to assess their proximity to geospatial hazards like flooding, earthquakes, landslides, whenua prone to liquefaction and tsunami.
In a presentation to last month’s Ka Mua Ka Muri Tairāwhiti Resilience Research symposium, he said 18 percent are vulnerable to tsunamis, 30 percent are in flood zones, 29 percent are susceptible to landslides caused by earthquakes and 36 percent are on land prone to liquefaction.
“I think our marae need investment and quite urgently, as we’ve seen that the kind of hazard events that have happened just in the last decade and the science tells us that these kinds of events are expected to intensify and also become more frequent,” he says
Mr Vercoe says local government and civil defence need to work more on collaborating with marae to prepare for when they may be needed as community hubs after natural disasters.