Climate change means heavy rain and damaging storms will occur more frequently.
Council has undertaken extensive work to develop flood hazard maps and modelling to help predict where the worst of these effects will be felt so property owners can be prepared. You can also help prevent flooding by unblocking drains and gutters, and notifying council when stormwater blockages occur.
Learn about flood hazard modelling and planning Notify council about a stormwater blockage
Planning for heavy rainfall
What council will do:
- if heavy rain is forecast, we check and clear debris from over 100 stormwater grates at 60 specified locations around our city. Beach and dune stormwater outlets are also checked and blockages cleared
- during a storm, every call from the public is logged and requests for help to unblock drains are sent to contractors. A team of council staff is also on standby, ready to help if needed.
- after a storm has passed, stormwater grates and outlets are re-checked and unblocked.
If you have concerns about flooding in your street – phone us 24/7 on 07 577 7000. We will respond to flooding as soon as we can. But if flooding is widespread, we may not reach you immediately. If it is an emergency, phone 111.
What you can do:
- keep your roof gutters and drains clear of leaves and debris
- check your drainpipes and soakage holes regularly to make sure they work well
- if your property has flooded before, consider keeping a supply of sandbags handy. Learn more about sandbags
- if your internal or private drains are overflowing, this is your responsibility. Contact a private drainage contractor to deal with the blockage
- help your community and council by keeping an eye on nearby road gutters and clear away leaves and debris before heavy rain arrives
- install a rain tank to collect and store rainwater that falls on your roof
- limit the amount of paved surfaces on your property.
Stormwater Reactive Reserve Fund
Council has established a special fund to support our community in post-flood responses. Its purpose is to help pay for:
- emergency response and recovery
- clean-up costs
- initiatives on private and public land to enable stormwater to be conveyed away from at-risk areas
- reducing the risk of flooding
- potential property purchase
- infrastructure delivery or mitigation implementation where co-funding arrangements are proposed.
Stormwater Reactive Reserve Fund Application Form
Stormwater Reactive Reserve Fund Policy (186kb pdf)
Mount Maunganui North IBC Report
The Improving Stormwater Management for the Mount Maunganui North (High Density/CBD) Catchment Report, also known as the Mount Maunganui North IBC Report, has been developed by Tauranga City Council to identify a preferred way forward to mitigate existing flooding effects experienced in the catchment from stormwater. In addition, flooding effects associated with the expected consequences of climate change are also considered. This includes storm surge, sea level rise and rising groundwater, as well as increasing severity of weather events.
A copy of this report is available to view below. Due to the file size, the report has been split into five parts.
Mount Maunganui North IBC Report – part A (19.6Mb pdf) Mount Maunganui North IBC Report – part B (20.4Mb pdf) Mount Maunganui North IBC Report – part C (17.3Mb pdf)
Mount Maunganui North IBC Report – part D (18.2Mb pdf) Mount Maunganui North IBC Report – part E (16.9Mb pdf)
Plan Change 27
The purpose of Plan Change 27 is to ensure that future land use, subdivision and development within Tauranga is planned to be resilient to flooding.
The plan change introduces a new rule framework to the Tauranga City Plan to manage the effects of flooding from intense rainfall on people, properties and infrastructure.
Find out more about Plan Change 27