Christchurch-West Melton Zone Committee meeting

The Christchurch-West Melton Zone Committee will meet on 25 July for its monthly meeting to discuss water management issues in the zone.

The committee will begin the meeting with an update from the Regional Committee and then go on to discuss flooding and flood management in the zone.

The committee will receive presentations from Environment Canterbury and Christchurch City Council before discussing possible priority outcomes for flood management to feed in to its draft Zone Implementation Programme (ZIP) for water management.

Next the committee will discuss and agree on an approach to distributing Immediate Steps Biodiversity funding in the zone. Immediate Steps is a $10 million programme for biodiversity introduced as part of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy to cover the protection of endangered species and waahi taonga (sacred sites).

Immediate Steps also covers maintenance of Canterbury’s braided rivers, providing habitat for native flora and fauna, as well as protecting wetlands and other ecosystems.

At the meeting the committee will also receive a presentation from the Christchurch City Council on its silt removal programme following the earthquakes. The Council has developed a draft waterway silt removal programme for the next 12 months and identified the critical projects to the recovery of the land drainage system.

Christchurch City Council staff will also brief the committee on its approach to stormwater management plans and Environment Canterbury will update the committee on its draft Land and Water Regional Plan.

The zone committee will end the meeting by discussing the working draft of its ZIP. Since its last meeting in June, the committee has held four workshops to further develop key principles, priorities, and outcomes outlined in the ZIP.

The full committee will discuss significant points raised for consideration as it works to further refine the draft at subsequent workshops.

The committee hopes to have a draft ZIP ready for public feedback in October. Once the feedback has been processed a final version of the ZIP will be presented to councils to form the basis for the design and realignment of water management work programmes and long term plans.

The Christchurch - West Melton Zone Committee has been working since November 2011 to understand the major water management issues in the zone.

Committee meetings are open to the public and community members are provided opportunities to participate in water management discussions and share their ideas.

Meeting details

Christchurch – West Melton Zone Committee meeting
6pm, Wednesday, 25 July
Wigram Manor, 14 Henry Wigram Drive, Wigram

Read the agenda (4.3 MB)