Funding key to future proof disaster recovery

Following the 6 April Natural Disaster, Wollongong City Council’s Customer Service team took a staggering 6,500 calls from community members over a two-week period from people seeking support, advice and or to book in a kerbside on-call waste collections.

Online, we received more than 1000 requests for information and support, and there were approximately 3,400 tonnes of waste collected through the one-off emergency on-call clean up Council set up to support those impacted by the natural disaster.

Council’s focus throughout this period has been on supporting our community, and getting our community’s assets and facilities operational as soon as possible.

But while we mobilised staff before, during and after the rain event to support our community, now, several weeks on, we’re still counting the cost and the impact.

“The statistics around this event are astounding and when we start to breakdown the impact, it is really clear that we will be talking about the effects of the 6 April Natural Disaster for some time yet,’’ Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM said.

“We’ve identified there is a total of 88km’s of creeks that have been impacted by the storm across 40 suburbs. These are a mix of creeks on private and publicly owned property, and we’ve also got 112 stormwater basins and dams that need attention.

“While we’ve cleaned up as quickly as we can at high-risk sites, there is still material and debris that are in or on creek banks, and we’ve elements of our stormwater network that might be operating with limited capacity.

“In addition, some of the impacted areas need detailed geotechnical and stormwater investigations and analysis to be undertaken and that takes time.’’

Cr Bradbery said at Monday night’s Council meeting, Council supported ongoing efforts to seek funding from the Federal and State Governments to contribute to costs related to the immediate clean up, as well as longer term repairs and improvements to damaged infrastructure and natural assets.

“Council really is between a rock and a hard place,’’ he said.

“On one hand, we’ve got a draft budget that sets out Council’s plan to invest $26million in stormwater infrastructure over the next four years. We need to deliver these improvements to make our city more resilient to the impact of climate change, which will result in more frequent storms like the event of April 6.

“However, at the same time, we’re faced with a repair bill from the natural disaster both in terms of the immediate clean up and the longer term works that need to be done.

“There is only so far the revenue generated by Council can go, and alternative funding opportunities and sources are vital to paying for what needs to be done for our community.’’

Cr Bradbery said one of the opportunities from the natural disaster was for Council to position itself as an industry leader in disaster recovery. Our geography and landscape in terms of our urban area being positioned in a narrow coastal strip between the mountains and the sea, our positioning as a major freight hub and having the port, as well as diverse population provided the opportunity to use the city as a case study for learnings moving forward.

He said the challenge posed by the Australian and State Government Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement was that it only supported a like-for-like replacement of infrastructure. This means improved flood mitigation measures are not an option when it comes to infrastructure repairs.

“We want to see financial support that allows damaged infrastructure to be adapted to improve its functionality rather than only having a like-for-life replacement option,’’ he said.

“It makes sense and helps Council to mitigate the impacts of future natural disasters and their impacts on the community. Already, we’ve a bill of more than $5.6M that we’ve spent since 6 April and if repairs can be improvements then hopefully we can make our city more resilient for the future.

“This Council is committed to continuing to advocate to both the Federal and State Governments for support that helps this community and Council both now and into the future.’’