Welcome to the homepage for Water New Zealand's Backflow Group. This page will keep you up-to-date on the progress of the Group, planned events, technical articles, projects and links to affiliated Backflow sites.

Mission Statement

The Water New Zealand Backflow Group is the pre-eminent collective of knowledge on backflow in New Zealand. We represent all aspects of the backflow industry, including manufacturers, plumbers, training providers, water suppliers and building compliance officials. Our mission is to advocate industry best practice through education, conferences and forums, standards, legislation and guidelines.

We welcome your comments and feedback - please contact the Backflow Group liaison or fill in the Feedback Form.

Management Committee

If you have any questions relating to backflow, or would like to discuss backflow issues, please contact one of the committee members below. Or send an email to the Backflow Group liasion to submit an agenda item for the next committee meeting.

Chair: Richard Aitken Graeme Mills Aaron Buckley Kevin Healy Diana Staveley

All About Plumbing Ltd Tauranga City Council Hydroflow Reliance Worldwide Ltd AWT NZ Ltd

Christchurch Tauranga Christchurch Auckland Auckland

r.aitken@allaboutplumbing.co.nz graeme.mills@tauranga.govt.nz aaron@hydroflow.co.nz kevin@relianceworldwide.co.nz diana.staveley@awtwater.com

2009/2010 Backflow Group Committee Structure:

Chairman and Industry liaison – Richard Aitken

Finance and financial planning – Richard Aitken

Publicity/Communication – Aaron Buckley

Conference/Admin Protocol – Graeme Mills

Projects - Diana Staveley
Sub-Committee – Projects (CoP, National Standards, National IQP):
Barry Beaurain, Jon Lewis, George Little, Nick Fleckney, Hugh Roscoe, Arch Murray

Training and Education- Kevin Healy
Sub-Committee – Education and Training:
Murray Ellis, Hugh Roscoe, George Little, Nick Fleckney, Stewart Weddell

Other sub-committees are yet to be formed and the Group will go out to various people and seek their participation.

2009 Backflow Group Conference

The bi-annual Water New Zealand Backflow Conference was recently held in Wellington and attended by over 50 delegates from around New Zealand. Again, it was the best opportunity to network, learn and focus on issues from a backflow perspective. The programme featured speakers from around New Zealand whose expertise covered a broad range of backgrounds.

Presentations from the conference are available on the Backflow Presentations page

Current Projects 2009

Water New Zealand Backflow Group - Backflow Code of Practice for Water Suppliers Review

The Water New Zealand Backflow Group is updating the Backflow Code of Practice to reflect the Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2007 and requirements and changes in the water industry.

The revised Code of Practice will include:

• Boundary backflow prevention
• The Health Act and Public Health Risk Management Plans
• Ownership and charging customers
• New installations and retrofitting
• Testing and tester qualifications
• Enforcement and legal requirements

The group is looking to incorporate industry best practice into this document and is seeking documentation, case studies, legal opinions and any other relevant material from water suppliers and interested parties. If you have information to share or issues to raise and want to be part of this review process please contact:
Hannah Dawson at Water New Zealand, DDI 04 495 0894
hannah.dawson@waternz.org.nz

DBH Working Group

The Department of Building and Housing (DBH) is currently undertaking a consultation process with industry on the creation of a National IQP Database. Backflow Group Chair Richard Aitken is representing the Backflow Industry’s interests in establishing the criteria for entry onto the proposed framework, and what the Backflow Testing and Surveying IQP will be required to undertake under the new qualification and eligibility criteria.

The Joint Standard 2845.1/2/3 review:

Richard Atiken (Chair of the Backflow Group) has been attending the Australia Standards Meetings in Sydney. No one from New Zealand has been represented on this committee since 2005.

Approved Backflow Technicians National Database

The Backflow Prevention Group has developed a web-based database of Approved Backflow Technicians (ABTs). ABT’s have a thorough knowledge of backflow prevention and cross connection control, and will have attended and passed an approved 40-hour Backflow course. The purpose of this database is to provide confidence to those who search the site to know that if they contact a tester from the database, these people have met the pre-requisite standard. This pre-requisite standard will be that the tester has:

• sat and passed the 40 hour training
• up-skilled every 3 years
• holds the required insurance levels
• operates a certified test gauge
• is a current financial member of Water New Zealand

Water New Zealand or the Backflow Group cannot provide any guarantees as to the suitability of the individual tester. The database is there to provide a contact point between members of the public in all regions of the country and approved backflow technicians.

How to apply

To be included on the database, you must fill in the application form, and you also need to be a current member of Water New Zealand. You will also need a copy of the current Backflow Prevention for Drinking Water Suppliers Code of Practice.

Unit Standards for Backflow Prevention

Preparation for Testing and Inspection & Testing and Inspection for Backflow Prevention

Courses for 2009 are now being held in the following locations: Wellington, Tauranga, Christchurch and Dunedin. For course content, prices, and registration forms, please go to the NZWETA website.

This course is recommended for plumbers, Council engineers and contractors (installers, regulators and maintenance), compliance officers, water treatment operators, and irrigation personnel (designers, installers and maintenance).

For the dates of these courses as well as other courses run by NZWETA, please follow this link.