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RNZ News
14-07-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Tapawera residents battle to get home after major slips
Some Tapawera residents haven't been able to get back to their homes. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon Tasman residents have been working relentlessly to clear major slips and get access to their homes just days after a second storm brought devastation to the region. A chunk of the mountainside has crashed down Wangapeka West Bank Road, near Tapawera. It has brought mounds of dirt over the road, cutting off at least four properties . Aspect contracting Darren Richardson said he was trying to clear it out for residents. "You just bore your way in and make yourself a bench with the digger and just start cutting into it. "You got to keep an eye on what's above you. So if you feel any - see any rocks come down you just get out." He's made a path through to the other side so people can walk through. But further up the road, there's more devastation and the piles of logs, mud and debris makes the road impassable. "A lot of slop from the creeks and trees that have fallen over from the wind. "I've cleared most of it up - just to get a track through - but there's a lot to clean," Richardson said. Jo Shaw and neighbour Brian Lambert in Tapawera, Tasman. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon Jo Shaw is one of the residents who lives on the other side of the slip. She has been cut off from her house for days since Friday's deluge. "It's just devastating for everyone I think. I smashed my phone accidentally, I've now got no phone to even try and find out what's going up there. "So I'm using everyone else's phone, can I get through? Is my cat ok? Is the house still standing?," Shaw said. She doesn't know how long she'll be out of her house for. Logs and trees collapsed in the gales and rain, hitting her neighbour's cars and damaging her water supply. "I'm just hoping I can get some clothes, and I can't stay there because my whole water system, pipes, everything has all just been floated away. "So I'm going to have to stay at a mate's caravan." Sections of Tapawera-Baton road have become mud, with small mountains of logs and trees at the sides. Tasman civil defence said 13 teams were visiting flood affected properties to investigate damage on Monday. That included in parts of Tadmore, Rocky River at the Motueka Valley, Dovedale, Baton River and in the Wai-iti area. Tapawera Community Led Development community connector Della Webby. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon Della Webby at the Tapawera community centre said residents couldn't drink or prepare food without boiling water. Like in parts of Dovedale, Tapawera Residents were still under a boil water notice, including those on private bores. The level of flooding has made the contamination risk high. "We're supplying bottled water and containers of water at the community centre. So they are available for the residents to collect if they need them. "We are currently working with TDC navigators to source extra water to bring in through the week." Webby said the emotional toll of the second storm has been even more severe than the first. "It's been incredibly hard on the community. The anxiety and emotion of people has been extremely high. "At the first event, a lot of people were just in shock, and now they are starting to crumble." Elsewhere in Tapawera, farms and businesses have been tirelessly clearing out mud, gravel and silt. Hayden Oldham from New Hoplands said "it's back to the start" to clean up their engineering workshop and hops. "Everything we cleaned up has been spread back out and gone through sheds and gardens." He said the workshop had about 300 millimetres of water running through it and it left about the same amount of silt and sand. "Around the sheds it's washed away all of our shed area, washed all the gravel into the hop gardens, got water all through the sheds and into some of our accommodation." He said the company's hop farm in Ngatimoti had been engulfed in a thick layer of silt, logs had taken out the hop posts, which would need to be put back up. He was hopeful the weather wouldn't affect the hops too much. "Hops are real hardy and right now they're asleep in the ground, so I am hopeful they won't get too affixiated. "If we can scrape the worst of the slurry off they should be able to grow through the sand." But he said the clean-up would be costly for businesses and farms, and many people still had insurance claims from the first flood to be sorted. "We've had floods here before but never this bad - and not twice." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Yahoo
International group points finger at one nation not doing its part on critical issue: 'Everyone should be sharing'
Efforts to put an end to rhino horn trafficking are being foiled by one of the hotbed countries for the illegal practice: Vietnam. Fortunately, the nation's lack of cooperation is not being ignored; representatives were taken to task on the international stage in early February 2025, according to Mongabay. But will the increased scrutiny be enough to make a difference? The Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) held its annual meeting in early February 2025. At the meeting, the topic of rhino horn trafficking was discussed, and an increasingly tired issue came to the fore. For years now, pressure has been put on Vietnam to improve its enforcement measures and its reporting methods regarding rhino horn trafficking. This included sharing samples of seized horns with the South African Rhino DNA Indexing Systems (RhODIS). "Ideally, everyone should be sharing samples of seized rhino horn with South Africa," Jo Shaw from the NGO Save the Rhino says. Unfortunately, Vietnam is not necessarily the only nation that's slacking in its rhino-protecting duties. In fact, Taylor Tench of the Environmental Investigation Agency claims that most rhino horns are never shared with RhODIS. Putting an end to rhino horn trafficking is a key component to protecting these beautiful endangered creatures. While there are other threats to the rhino population — like plastic pollution — poachers are by far the greatest. A shocking 96% of African Black rhinos were poached between 1972 and 1996. This was largely done to satisfy consumer demand for rhino horns. Vietnam (along with China) was the largest market for the product, and that remains true even today. Knowing this information, it's fairly clear why it's important not only to trace seized rhino horns but also for Vietnam to be an active participant in the practice. It's heartbreaking to know that the rhinoceros is threatened largely by the greed and materialism of humans. However, there are other humans out there who may be the biggest reason the beautiful species survives. Should we be actively working to kill invasive species? Absolutely It depends on the species I don't know No — leave nature alone Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Conservationists in Africa have been working to protect the critically endangered eastern black rhino. In July 2024, they were amazed and delighted to find a baby black rhino in the wild. A trail camera provided Indonesian conservationists with an equally shocking discovery in August 2024. Footage revealed a critically endangered Javan rhino and its calf walking through Ujong Kulong National Park. These amazing discoveries are the result of tireless conservation efforts. It's important to remember that while some people are willing to extinguish an entire species for profit, others dedicate their lives to ensuring that they survive. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
