The Mahurangi River is dying. Silt is smothering everything in the river and harbour, upsetting the ecological balance, slowly suffocating the aquaculture industry and creating an eyesore in the town. Leisure pursuits are limited because of low water volumes and unclean water. The river is unusable except for a few hours either side of high tide, being only ankle deep, in places, at low tide.
Clear 115,000 cubic meters of sediment from the river. Over 3 years the silt will be removed along the length of the river creating a 15-meter-wide navigable channel plus cleaning out the town basin. Initial costs of $20million have been reduced to just over $5 million by securing a site for land-based disposal of the sediment (as opposed to sea-based disposal) but this site is possibly only available for the next 3 years.
is to remove the silt from the river within the next three years. During this time we have a landbased disposal site available and this is key to keeping costs affordable. Considerable time and resources have been invested into the engineering and construction of specialised equipment that can operate at all tides. Local professional firms supporting the vision, have sponsored or worked at cost to bring the project to the stage enabling us to start.
