Govt largely in the dark about unregulated dams' safety

Building minister Chris Penk said the risk posed by unregulated dams was low. (Image: NZME)

Fri, 07 Jun 2024

After lifting the threshold for mandatory regulations for dams, the government says it has only limited information about which of these would be a risk to life if they failed.Chris Penk, the minister for building and construction, is also not certain if those dams are being managed properly or otherwise being regulated.The last government had proposed changes to dam regulations, which were due to come into effect last month.The regulations define dams as “classifiable”, which means they come under mandatory and stricter management,...

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