Te Pūwaha is a collaborative effort, under the guidance of hapű and iwi (as led by Te Mata Pūau) and upheld by its partners: Horizons, Whanganui District Council, Whanganui Port, Q-West Boat Builders, and teh Whanganui District Employment Training Trust (Port Employment Precinct). This collaboration is about creating mauri awa (abundance for the river), mauri ora (abundance for the wider ecosystem), and mauri tangata (abundance for whānau, hapū, iwi and the wider Whanganui community).

Horizons' portion of the project will ensure river channel alignment is maintained to protect Whanganui's critical infrastructure (including port, three waters and flood protection assets) from erosion and sea encroachment. This certainty of river alignment is critical to the wider Te Pūwaha effort, as it will protect and enable the Whanganui Port to develop and operate by defining the river mouth and contributing to a navigable depth for vessels.

Our components of the project area:

• strengthening of the North Mole and revetment;
• reinstatement of the Tanea Groyne;
• upgrade of erosion control structures along the South Spit;
• strengthening of the South Mole; and
• repair to the interface wall at the base of the Tanea Groyne.

The North Mole component of the project is now complete. However, due to increased construction costs, approximately two-thirds of our initial Te Pūwaha budget of $16 million has been spent. We estimate another $17.5m is required on top of the initially budgeted $16m to complete the remaining work programme.

We have applied under the resilience component of central government's Regional Infrastructure Fund for grant funding. Council has also approved $5.25m of funding for our components of Te Pūwaha.

As our portion of funding will be via a loan, we have options around how long the loan term will last. A shorter term means more immediate impact on ratepayers but lower interest costs, while a longer term spreads the financial impact across a longer period of time but requires more interest to be paid.