Christchurch is a low-lying city and there have always been areas that are prone to flooding during heavy rainfall. The Land Drainage Recovery Programme aims to restore flood risk to pre-earthquake levels.
The Canterbury earthquakes worsened flooding in many areas of the city through land subsidence and damage to waterways and land drainage infrastructure.
The Land Drainage Recovery Programme (LDRP), set up in 2012, is one of the ways the Council is addressing the issue of flooding.