Temporary buyouts of homes are being presented as one option for easing flood risk to low-lying households in areas of Christchurch such as the Flockton Basin.
The taskforce charged with finding short-term solutions to Christchurch's flood woes made a range of recommendations to the city council on Monday afternoon.
Other options include area-wide mitigation, individual property protection and property relocation.
The Flockton area has suffered from increased flooding since the earthquakes. Photo: RNZ / Nicola Grigg
Council land drainage operations manager Mike Gillooly said one option could be to buy out individual property owners until a long-term solution was put in place, and then sell the property back to them.
He said another solution would be building a temporary village to accommodate the 994 households assessed as vulnerable to regular flooding.
Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel originally ordered the taskforce to find temporary solutions to the repeated flooding in low-lying areas of Christchurch.
But its report said that within the timeframe given, it had not been able to identify what blend of solutions will work best.
On Monday she told the council to re-negotiate contracts, if it had to, in order to protect the city's most flood-prone properties.
Ms Dalziel told the council that if that meant it had to re-negotiate its contracts, then it should go ahead.
And she asked the council's temporary acting chief executive, Jane Parfitt, to put together a second phase task force to provide urgent solutions in the most vulnerable areas such as the low lying Flockton Basin.
"Action for the residents in terms of the work that will be done in order to improve the flows of the rivers and all of those things, plus the pump station for the Flockton area, repair of flat gates on the Avon and Heathcote rivers, still looking at the dredging issues," she said.
She told the council that if that meant it had to re-negotiate its contracts, then it should go ahead.
The report said that within the timeframe given, the taskforce had not been able to identify what blend of solutions will work best.
The council estimated that range of solutions could cost anything from $13 million to $20 million.
Jo Byrne, the leader of a group representing Flockton Basin residents, said she was disappointed the Government could not instantly buy up their flood damaged homes.
"I was just feeling sad today for a lot of our residents where were hoping that someone was going to wave a magic wand and give them an optional buy-out today," Ms Byrne said.
"So that hasn't happened but I think we'll regroup and make plans to get through winter."
