Compensation, management concerns

Published date04 August 2021
He predicts the half-a-million-dollar flood clean-up from the May 31 flood will result in a $1m loss of income and no chance of compensation.

The government’s $4million fund pays up to 50% of non-insured damage but only on productive land.

It is not the weather Mr Rooney is frustrated with, it is paying a river rate to Environment Canterbury for river management that he, and a growing number of others, say is not happening.

He said the issue had been raised at many subsequent flood-affected farmer events.

The herd would have been better-off with Mycoplasma bovis, there would have been compensation, he said.

Mr Rooney and wife Philippa farm alongside the north branch of the Ashburton River. Their farm took a hit when the river burst the river stopbank alongside their property in late-May.

It breached the bank, flowed through their decade-old house — rendering them homeless — and towards land where cows grazed. They were able to move them out of harm’s way. But it was a scary time.

The torrent of water flowed on to grassed paddocks and ripped apart fencing, laneways, and anything not tied down.

The motors on the centre pivot were buggered, he said.

Branches and rocks were strewn about from water which got up to two-metres high at peak.

The Rooneys had a fleeting visit from agricultural minister Damien O’Connor and Rangitata MP Jo Luxton last week. Mr O’Connor’s first to the district since the event.

It was a brief stop, but Mr Rooney was able to voice his concerns.

“The more people that see the cock-up (of a lack of river management) the better,” he said afterwards.

It was ‘‘preventable’’.

A lot of work has been done in the past nine weeks by those on farm, those brought in, and with the added help of volunteers.

Environment Canterbury diggers were still working in the riverbed alongside the property.

The couple, and their four young children, had been back in the house for the past week. They moved in with some new furniture but no carpet, curtains, or septic system, which were due this week.

But being home was better than being away from the farm, Mrs Rooney said.

Areas of the farm which were once productive green lands now look like riverbeds, even with new fencing and laneways.

Silt covers the land.

The milking shed is still out of action but calving has started, so they have temporarily farmed cows out for milking. They hope to be milking in their own shed by the end of the week.

Numbers in the herd had been reduced with some leased out temporarily, and...

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