A damn good idea

The Great Harbour Way Trust has an innovative idea for protecting Wellington’s harbour from predicted sea rises.

A review of our regional Council’s responses to climate change would no doubt be quite damning, in terms of protecting the coastline around our harbour. Despite resiliency focused projects like Te Ara Tupua (Ngauranga-Petone) and Tupua Horo Nuku (Eastern Bays), much of the land and suburbs around the Wellington Harbour will continue to be at risk from sea levels rising and with increasingly severe storms. One local community group is suggesting building a dam across the entrance of the harbour. It would be a great opportunity according to the Great Harbour Way Trust who for years have been advocating for a continuous 70 kilometre route for walkers and cyclists around the entire perimeter of Wellington Harbour / Te Whanganui-a-Tara; from Fitzroy Bay in the east to Sinclair Head in the west.

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Great Harbour Way Trust member Ron Beernink came up with the idea. “Standing at the Pencarrow Lighthouse and looking over to the other side of the harbour, I could just imagine people walking and cycling across it and stopping at a viewing platform to see an orca passing into the harbour, and watching one of the Cook Strait ferries passing through a lock with two sets of gates”.

Ron Beernink contacted his old friend Jan Grappemaker, who is a well known maritime engineer in the Netherlands. Mr Grappemaker agreed that it was an excellent idea and thinks that now is the time to build such a dam because of the inevitable rising sea levels due to climate change. “Just look at how the Netherlands have been able to protect much of the land that is below sea level by building a network of dams back in the middle of the last century”. He points out that in 2020 a Dutch government scientist proposed building two mammoth dams to completely enclose the North Sea and protect an estimated 25 million Europeans from the consequences of rising sea levels as a result of global heating. Although the plan hasn’t gained traction yet, it shows that it is possible and has significant benefits.

Ron Beernink points out that the dam will also protect the investment that has and is being made into the wonderful improvements to part of the routes such as Te Ara Tupua (the Petone-Ngauranga shared path), Tupua Horo Nuku (Eastern Bays shared paths), and the new separated paths along the Oriental Bays and Cobham Drive.

The Great Harbour Way Trust will be recommending the idea to the Wellington City Council and the Hutt City Councils as part of the submissions into the Long Term Plans. This alongside recommendations to improve other sections of the Great Harbour Way, such as a proper sized shared pathway over the Waione Bridge in Petone. The Trust is also hoping to talk to Sir Peter Jackson about his vision for Shelly Bay, and will be pushing the Wellington City Council to make the route between the Miramar cutting and Scorching Bay one way so that the seaside lane can be turned into a walking and cycling route.