Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
The sudden deluge which hit Auckland on its Anniversary weekend has prompted a closer look at the services which keep the Super City running. One of those services involves Watercare, Auckland’s largest water utility company and helping to ensure communities are served with a clean, reliable and sustainable source of water is Tongan engineer Siosifa Pole.
When the Auckland region was struck with the double blows of the anniversary weekend floods and Cyclone Gabrielle in quick succession, the region’s water infrastructure utility went into overdrive.
“A lot of people and homes were affected during the recent heavy rain and cyclone event and it also affected our Watercare operations team and our assets,” says Siosifa Pole, Watercare’s Design Delivery Manager for assets, upgrades and renewals.
“During the heavy rain we did have a lot of water that went into our wastewater systems and also a lot of flooding waters that had inundated our wastewater pump stations.”
Watercare looks after drinking water as well as waste and stormwater systems across the region so when the two weather events hit, it put Watercare along with countless homes and families, under huge stress.
Nearly two months on, and there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“At the moment we’re still going through the recovery phase,” he says.
“This meant being able to assess most of the damage and for future extreme weather events, Watercare will be looking at response times and better equipping themselves.”
The floods this year could be a sign of things to come and if that happens Pole says to try and keep out of the floodwaters as much as possible.
“The flood waters are generally contaminated, not only with surface contaminants… on road but also if the wastewater systems are inundated, then you’ve also got waste mixed in with the floodwaters. Very harmful for individuals to go swimming in,” he says.
The challenge to keep community water connected and thriving during adverse times is on-going as Watercare continues to find new ways to improve their response to weather events.
“If there’s a large-scale water outage in the area, Watercare will try and contact the customers via sms. They’ll update the local Facebook community page to advise them of the outage and alternative means of supplying water.” Pole says.
“Depending on the… extent of the damage, we can also send out a water-tanker to fill out water bottles… until we get the water back on service”.
