Ophir farmers are facing tens of thousands of dollars in costs to repair the Manuherikia River bank after recent floods ripped away the marginal strip and some of their land.
Farmer Sam Leask said they thought it was unfair they should pay for the damage caused by ''everyone's river''.
''It's a user pays deal. There's no money in the regional council to fix this and it has been the case for quite some years, but it's not fair - it's everyone's river.''
However, the regional council was being ''very co-operative'', he said.
Regional council operations manager Scott MacLean said the council was responsible for the river channel and was not funded to repair erosion but he understood the farmer's frustration.
Programmed work on the river would coincide with any repair work the farmers would undertake, which was going to provide a ''much more sustainable outcome''.
That work would include removing debris and a ''whole heap of gravel'' shifted by the recent flood.
The gravel was effectively forming a bar which was pushing the water further to the left, where it had eaten into the farmer's land.
Mr Leask said if they stood back and did nothing to repair the bank, the problem would only get worse and flood waters could one day threaten the road to Omakau and houses. Floods had become ''more vicious'' in recent years.
He said the July 6 flood, caused by snow melt, was not a particularly great flood, ''but it blew the banks out of the river'' for about 100m. Those banks had been left unprotected after a flood six years ago washed away trees.
That flood cost Mr Leask about $10,000 and an additional $5000 to replace farm equipment, but this one would be more expensive. He estimated the five affected farmers would be facing a combined repair bill of between $30,000 and $50,000.
As the most affected landowner, he would bear the brunt of that cost.
''It's all up to the farmers to pay for it, which is what gets to us. It's the people's river and the Queen's Chain [marginal strip] but it's the adjacent landowner that has to pay. We're not allowed to do anything with the river without consents but we have to fix this.''
Mr MacLean said fixing the river bank was a permitted activity and providing the farmers or their contractors could stick to certain conditions, they would not need a resource consent.
Those conditions included the repair being done within 12 months of the damage occurring, that the work did not exceed 10 hours in duration and that all reasonable steps were taken to minimise the release of sediment into the river.
Mr Leask has been living on the property his whole life - more than 60 years - and says it is only the third time it has seriously flooded.
''The biggest problem now is that the bank has been compromised. It floods at 130cumecs now when it used to be at 240cumecs, so instead of one flood in eight years, it will be more like six in eight.''
He said it would probably be September or October before the ground had dried and the water level had dropped enough to begin repairs on the bank, but he expected another flood before, then as more snow melted.
He thought they would use rocks to repair the bank.
At its peak, he estimated the flood to have covered 50ha of land, flattening fences, flowing through sheds and ruining up to $12,000 worth of hay on his property.
Department of Conservation acting community relations manager for Central Otago Jacob Dexter said he thought the marginal strip that was taken away by the flood was set before 1990 and was therefore fixed, meaning ''once it's gone, it's gone''.
