1 Apr 2022

Drought declared in Southland - one week after Gisborne floods

From Morning Report, 6:45 am on 1 April 2022

Floods in the north, and a drought in the south - two very different challenges.

Tairāwhiti is still swamped from last week's deluge, with boggy paddocks, roads washed out, and stock losses still going up.

In Murihiku/Southland, a drought has finally been declared.

The council dubbing it the driest year since records began in 1970 and for the first time ever, irrigators are being turned off for at least two weeks.

Gisborne/Wairoa rural coordination group chair Sandra Faulkner, and Southland president Chris Dillon spoke to Susie Ferguson.