Ashburton Courier: January 23, 2020

Page 16, Ashburton's The Courier, Thursday 23 January 2020
Harper sings Bacharach
New Zealand performer Ali Harper will
celebrate the songs of songwriter and
composer Burt Bacharach when she
performs in Ashburton in March.
Bacharach’s music has stood the test
of time and includes the classics Close
To You, That’s What Friends Are For,
Walk On By, Anyone Who Had A
Heart, ISay ALittle Prayer, What The
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World Needs Now and The Look of
Love.
The upcoming tour called The Look
of Love features Tom Rainey as musical
director and on piano, and Harry
Harrison on guitar.
Tickets for the 7.30pm on March 19 at
the Event Centre are available from the
venue orticketrocket.co.nz.
Local news at www.starnews.co.nz
River protection work
continues on Rangitata
By ChrisTobin
The Rangitata River protection
works remain in a vulnerable
state after last month’s devastating
flood and there are concerns
heavy rain could result in more
flooding.
The mid­December floods caused
wide­spread damage.
Environment Canterbury
(ECan) river engineering manager
Leigh Griffiths said the council
had communicated any potential
risk to nearby landowners and
the public.
“It’s important that people in
and around the Rangitata River
are aware that the river is vulnerable
to outbreaks should river
levels rise again.”
ECan has identified three key
sites needing strengthening in the
wake of the flood which cut off
State Highway 1 and flooded
roads and farmland.
For 10 hours the river reached
peak flows of more than 2000
cumecs due to heavy rainfall at
the headwaters.
“The key sites are at Arundel
above the bridge, at the south
branch breakout point and just
above the KiwiRail bridge,” Mr
Griffiths said.
“Once this work is completed
we will have more confidence that
the river could cope with a
moderate flood event.”
At the peak of the emergency
recovery work, 11 machines from
five companies were operating.
This was now down to six.
Mr Griffiths said the first
priority in the recovery work was
to stop the outflow of floodwaters
from the river on to the
floodplain and over roads.
“This has now been completed
thanks to amassive effort from
machinery operators, contractors
and key staff from several organisations
including ECan, Timaru
District Council and the NZ
Transport Agency.”
Mr Griffiths said the next stage
of in­channel work and diversions
should be finished by the end of
The flooding of the Rangitata River was aone in 20 year flood
which has caused extensive damage.
this week.
“The last stage is reinstating
banks and the vegetated berms
which are crucial in erosion
reduction and in providing some
limited protection against
overflows.
“Hundreds, if not thousands, of
established trees were lost and
this is something that will take
years to recover.”
The repair cost was expected to
run into millions of dollars with
important in­river work already
completed costing about
$700,000.
“Beyond this a longer­term
plan will be created for possible
future work, its time frames and
how it will be funded,” Mr
Griffiths said.
“This will require further
discussions with the community
and the Rangitata River rating
district will be consulted on this.”
The Timaru and Ashburton
district councils would be
approached to discuss funding,
along with NZTA, KiwiRail and
communication companies.
The causes:
Environment Canterbury said
different flow patterns and major
breakouts from the river caused
most of the damage and disruption.
Rangitata south branch:
Before the river peaked the main
branch of the river broke into the
usually dry south branch about
4.5km above SH1. For atime the
south branch water flow was
greater than in the main branch.
It remained large until December
14 when flows were diverted into
the main channel.
South branch breakouts:
Floodwaters overtopped the
south branch 2km upstream of
SH1 and caused flooding on
SH79, SH1 and in Rangitata
village.
Railway line, SH1 flooding
from main branch: Waters broke
out of the main river just
upstream of the railway line,
crossed SH1 and flowed into the
Rangitata Island area. This
stopped traffic. Other breakouts
from the main and south branch
exacerbated flooding of farmland.
Arundel breakout: A large
breakout 2km upstream of Arundel
flooded the township and
Geraldine­Arundel Rd.
Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon comments
The changing face of education
Over the past couple of decades
there’s been ahuge technological
shift in education. It wasn’t until my
last year or two at Allenton that we
had computers at school, and at
Intermediate we were lucky to have
one in every classroom.
Stepping inside classrooms now
is awhole new world. Many kids
have the use of tablets and some
schools are investing in equipment
like 3D printers.
How education changes around
technology is something I’ve been
giving alot of thought over the past
six months as the National caucus
worked on our education discussion
document, but it wasn’t
until an Advance Ashburton event
late last year at the Ashburton
Trust Event Centre that Iheard the
best and simplest example.
Ashburton College principal
Ross Preece was presenting and
asked the audience what just afew
years ago might have been a
difficult question to answer: how
much for a membership at the
Ashburton Golf Club? Within 15
seconds the correct answer was
called from the audience.
The point he was demonstrating
is how much human knowledge is
now held in our pocket and
instantly discoverable at the swipe
of afinger. Our education system
has adapted well to that change, in
a way that others now envy. I
accompanied Ross on a visit to
China in 2018 and visited schools
that are teaching the equivalent of
rote learning, cramming information
into the minds of students by
memorisation.
It gives them an excellent
grounding of what is current today,
but over time that knowledge
becomesless and less relevant in an
ever­changing world. By contrast
where our students excel is in
critical thought. Digesting arange
of information from multiple
sources, and making decisions
based on the quality of that
information, rather than merely
memorising it.
It’s an incredibly important skill
to have. When one thinks about the
way our world has changed in even
the last 10 years, young people
growing up today need to be armed
not only with the best available
information of today, but be ready
for the technology and discoveries
of future decades.
It’s an exciting and scary proposition,
preparing young minds for a
world tomorrow that we today
cannot even imagine. All the very
best toour local teachers, principals,
support staff and students
heading into anew school year.