Wellington: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has said that New Zealand needs to rebuild the country with more resilient infrastructure to deal with frequent extreme weather events.
Cyclone Gabriel, which recently caused widespread damage in New Zealand and claimed 11 lives, has been described by the Prime Minister as the most destructive natural disaster of this century.
And four people lost their lives in the cyclone that hit Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, two weeks ago. Hipkins also said there was a nine-fold increase in government spending in the 2021-22 fiscal year to help farmers cope with floods, storms and droughts.
The number of natural disasters requiring emergency road work has doubled from 67 in 2018 to an average of 140 per year by 2021.
Hipkins also told parliament that he understands how to rebuild the country, “this time around, we have to do it a little differently.” “The country needs to be rebuilt better, built more securely,” he said.
He added that New Zealand is now experiencing the effects of climate change on a regular basis and that extreme natural disasters are becoming more common and more severe.
Normal rebuilds will no longer work. Billions of dollars in additional investment are needed not only to repair the damage, but also to build greater resilience to deal more strongly with such incidents in the future.
Currently, the government is focusing on rehabilitation activities including road maintenance. Around 250 state highways and local roads were closed on Monday afternoon. Hipkins said crews are repairing 400 kilometers of highway.
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