Emergency Management Minister, Hon Kieran McAnulty, will travel to Blenheim to meet with Marlborough Mayor, John Leggett, tomorrow afternoon. During his visit, Minister McAnulty will see first-hand the damage to the region following the recent rain event.

Havelock water

Council has completed a further inspection of the Havelock water leak.

The leak is on the pipeline leading up to the Havelock reservoir however, a slip just below the reservoir means it is currently too unsafe to repair.

Council has stopped the water flow out of the broken section of pipe retaining water supply to Havelock.

Council’s Operations and Maintenance Engineer, Stephen Rooney, says the leak will be repaired as soon as it is safe to do so. “The good news is this work will not impact households in Havelock so people will be able to flush their toilets during the repair,” Mr Rooney said.

Civil Defence Emergency Management will arrange for the removal of the port-a-loos in Havelock in the coming days.

Drinking water advice

The Public Health Service recommends people on their own water supply, who are affected by flooding, to boil their water. Flood water can contain bugs that can make people sick.

For further information about treating drinking water visit: www.healthed.govt.nz/resource/water-collection-tanks-and-safe-household-water or www.esr.cri.nz/assets/WATER-CONTENT/ESR0940-Household-water-supply.pdf

Rai Valley animal welfare

Rai Valley remains cut off from both Blenheim and Nelson and there are ongoing concerns regarding stock welfare.

Sarah White from the Marlborough Rural Support Trust said Rai Valley farmers are currently dumping milk and many have lost hay and baleage supplies.

A meeting is planned for this week with representatives from the Ministry for Primary Industries and farming groups to assess the area’s most immediate needs.

“Right now farmers are going through the motions, they know what to do, but we need to look ahead and make sure their needs are met,” Ms White said.

“Their needs are mostly centred around machinery required to get their farms back up and running, feed to replace supplies washed away in floodwaters and manpower to repair damage,” she said.

Farmers were also investigating ways of sending their milking herds out of the area so they could be milked.

“With calving in full swing there were concerns over how farmers would cop,” Ms White said.

State Highways and local roads

An update on the closures of State Highway 6, Nelson to Blenheim, and State Highway 63, from Renwick to Saint Arnaud will be provided on Tuesday 23 August.

Meanwhile, State Highway 6 between Renwick and Havelock is restricted to emergency access only.

Waka Kotahi stated there is extensive flood damage to this area and ask that people respect the road closure as contractors and emergency services are the priority.

A number of local roads around the region also remain closed. For a full list of closures visit: www.marlborough.govt.nz/services/alerts

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