Funding from the Whanganui River Enhancement Trust will help the Wanganui District Council and Awarua Stream Catchment Committee restore the stream to its natural state.

The stream at Putiki has in recent times been used as a large open drain and was not well maintained, causing ongoing flooding problems on State Highway 3 and private properties, Infrastructure and Property Committee Chair Cr Ray Stevens said.

"Recently the council joined with the property owners to form an integrated catchment committee," Cr Stevens said.

"Many owners have now undertaken work on their properties that will improve the effectiveness of the stream during rain events."

A successful application for funding from the Whanganui River Enhancement Trust will help the council to meet its responsibility to build a 'fish pass' to allow for whitebait spawning and movement of indigenous fish.

A fish pass is a structure on or around artificial barriers to help the natural migration of fish which move from the sea to fresh water. It enables fish to pass around the barriers by swimming and leaping up a series of relatively low steps into the waters on the other side. The velocity of water falling over the steps has to be great enough to attract the fish to the pass, but it cannot be so great that it washes fish back downstream or exhausts them so they cannot continue their journey upriver.

The Trust has granted a total of $27,000 for the project. Part of the funding will be used to identify the fish species in the stream, with this work being done by Massey University students. Once the species have been identified, a fish pass will be designed that is appropriate for those species.

"A property owner who had clean-up work done on his property also got a grant from the Trust to replant the cleared stream with the appropriate plants to recover the ecology of the stream and restore it to how it would have looked before humans interfered," Cr Stevens said.

"Council would like to thank all the ratepayers for their contributions to improving the stream. This has been a great community effort to help return the stream to its natural state."

Anyone who would like to join the Awarua Stream Catchment Committee should contact Collie Siew at the Wanganui District Council, email collie.siew@wanganui.govt.nz.