Mrs Matheson, a youth justice social worker, approached the Otago Daily Times last week to highlight her concerns about the dangers to her grandchildren and the devastation wrought over the years to her garden, sleepout piles and goldfish pond.
She was flooded three weeks ago and again on Tuesday.
"I have approached the local council, regional council, Hawea Irrigation Company and farmers to have the flooding stopped, with no success ... One year, one of the grandchildren came out of the sleepout, spied the water and ran into it before her parents could stop her. It was deep enough for her to have drowned. I still have a grandchild and a great-grandchild in the baby stage and this worries me. When we have visitors with young children I have to tell them to check there is no flooding when their children are in the back yard ... I am tired of fighting this battle every year. I call it mismanagement of water. Who out there can help me?" Mrs Matheson said.
Hawea Irrigation Company chairman Peter Hook late last week said the flooding was caused by "mistimed" water escaping from Bill McCarthy's steeper farm land, running across a road and through a culvert on to Mrs Matheson's property.
Her section was a stopped part of the Hawea Back Rd and the lie of the land encouraged water to flow along the old road route, he said.
Similar stormwater flows down the old road route could occur during heavy rain but it was accepted the most recent floods resulted from irrigation, Mr Hook said.
"From an irrigation company's point of view, it's the landowner's responsibility to avoid that. We've talked to the landowner and he is happy to construct a ditch, which will come out and around the side of Maire's property to the road side ... To be fair, it shouldn't be happening from an irrigation company's point of view. But it is inevitable that it will happen again in a heavy rainfall. So it [the ditch] will solve a stormwater issue as well," Mr Hook said.
Mr McCarthy said on Friday he was keen that irrigation water did not get out but if it did, the problem should be easily fixed by digging the suggested ditch.
Mr Hook said one of the stumbling blocks for digging the ditch had been getting permission from Mrs Matheson's neighbours.
The neighbouring land is owned by Bill and Cathy Allison's company, AT Company, which is in receivership. The property is for sale.
Mr Hook said he had spoken to receiver Alistair King, of Wanaka, and was hopeful permission to dig a ditch would be forthcoming.
Mr King yesterday confirmed tenders had closed and he was processing them.
Mr King declined to comment on whether the new property owner would permit a drainage ditch because the tender process was in a confidential phase.
