Meola Creek’s good neighbour
Liz January 25th, 2017
Meola Creek has a new good neighbour. A local resident has improved his yard and helped our creek and harbour by using ‘gobi blocks’ instead of concrete as a pad for his car. This is rare at a time when concrete trucks abound as gardens are covered over.
Upper Meola Creek has dozens of overflows each year causing sewage and toxins from roads and roofs to spill on to land, and into Waitemata harbour. At the same time the base flow is lowering because the water is all being channelled to the sea, instead of naturally filtering and recharging the aquifer.
Homeowners, schools and developers can easily reduce this through “low impact design”. We can all use gobi blocks, rain gardens, wetlands, and roof gardens to retain the water on land for longer and allow it to refill our creeks and rivers. Guidelines are available from Auckland Council or Landcare e.g. Water sensitive design
We have the information and the technology to reduce the concrete covering our back yards and driveways.
We look forward to Auckland Council and CCOs showing the way with permeable road and foot path surfaces, to reduce the detritus from roads which currently flows into our creeks and harbours.
Permeable car pad near Meola Creek,
