Mr Radich said yesterday a crisis was averted at the weekend, when heavy rain fell, and the Dunedin City Council needed to continue focusing on infrastructure investment.
"The water systems are coping, but only just," he said.
"The need for improvement, especially in our stormwater, is very urgent."
Rain again highlighted a problem in parts of Surrey St, where there were wastewater overflows.
Mr Radich had pushed for South Dunedin drainage improvements and a package for that was part of the council’s nine-year plan adopted yesterday.
"Since October 2024, work has been put into a pipes and pumps plan that will provide relatively rapid remediation in the area," he said.
"It is happening and it is funded."
There was also funding in the nine-year plan to divert all wastewater from the Caversham tunnel to the wastewater treatment plant at Green Island, he said.
"That requires a significant upgrade of the Green Island plant, which is also funded."
Cr Carmen Houlahan said she and Cr Jim O’Malley had advocated numerous times for more to be done regarding Surrey St.
"It has taken too long to do this work," she said.
Cr Andrew Whiley said it was frustrating to still see problems 10 years on from the large 2015 flood.
"I am also extremely sorry that the residents go through this time and time again."
The council said it was working on its preferred option for fixing a Surrey St bottleneck, "and we expect to be in a position to share further information later this year".
Dunedin mayoralty candidate Andrew Simms said practical engineering solutions regarding stormwater were presented by Opus in 2017.
"It is absolutely unacceptable that the residents of Surrey St should endure contaminated stormwater entering their street and property, and be deprived of using their own ablutions during times of heavy rain," he said.
"Ten years on from 2015 and we are still talking."
