A recovery package from Taranaki Regional Council will be welcome relief for farmers whose fences and pasture were destroyed in the last month's floods.
Last month's flooding caused enormous damage to Taranaki. Photo: SUPPLIED
The council has announced a half-million dollar package to help cover the costs of replacing riparian planting, grass seed, and in some cases fencing.
Taranaki Rural Support trustee Marcia Paurini said it was wonderful for farmers, with many having questioned how they would afford to pay for all the damage.
She said another heavy dumping of rain over the weekend had not helped and more was expected to fall.
She said there was growing frustration among farmers because most areas were still too wet to clear major slips.
"The erosion and the slips and the silt, it's just horrible, and so I think there's quite a few months - easily well into summer - before they get all of this silt and erosion all tided up."
But she said the people affected were a resilient bunch.
"They keep on saying they're not as bad as Joe down the road, but every farm I've seen in my mind is pretty bad.
"Silt covering hectares, and erosion taking out hectares of what was once workable land, and there's an economic cost to that.
Ms Paurini said the cost on farms was higher than was being recognised.
Rural supporters in Taranaki were out with questionnaires, in part to look at the actual economic cost for the loss of infrastructure.
"So we can then get a really good snapshot and a qualitative understanding of what the figures show, because I think it's a lot worse than the medium adverse event declared is allowing for."
