Water New Zealand Industry Leadership

Water New Zealand has recently undertaken a review of its activities as the principal voice for the water sector. We confirmed that our role is to promote and enable the sustainable management and development of the water environment - encompassing the three waters: fresh, waste and storm.

I’d like to update you on the outcome of that review and let you know where our focus will be in the coming few years.

Through a strategic review by the Board, Water New Zealand has decided to focus on the following areas.

• Working collaboratively across the 3 waters sector to identify areas for improvement.
• Being a spokesperson and advocate on water policy issues – for example the implications of the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management on water quality associated with storm-water discharges.
• Promoting to Councils our annual benchmarking exercise in 3 waters performance.
  • Using learnings from benchmarking to identify areas where technical guidance could usefully be developed to drive a consistent approach between Councils – for example procurement, pipeline renewals, adoption of metadata standards.

The Board has agreed that an approach which demonstrates collaborative leadership in the 3 waters space is important. You will find that going forward there will be a much greater emphasis on working with Councils and other related trade associations in a collegial manner to achieve our goals.

We aim to establish ourselves as the “go to” advisor on 3 waters technical issues and, within 5 years, have the water industry determining its own future.

The attached strategic “plan on a page” summarises this new direction.

We have recently completed a staff restructuring and recruited a number of new staff to assist with delivering on the new strategy. While that recruitment is yet to be completed, an updated organisational chart is attached for your information.

One consequence of the changes will be the need for greater financial resourcing going forward. A lift in corporate membership fees will be on the agenda for adoption at the AGM in October.

The Board and I are excited by the new direction and are confident it will lead to better outcomes for the Association and the sector.

If you’d like to discuss any element of our new direction and focus, please make contact through our Chief Executive, John Pfahlert on 04 472 8925 or via email at ceo@waternz.org.nz.

Yours sincerely,

Brent Manning
President