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 the Backflow Group liasion to submit an agenda item for the next committee meeting, or a committee member will contact you.

Chair: Nick Fleckney Graeme Mills Richard Aitken Kevin Healy Diana Staveley George Little Logan MacDonald Wayne Shields Murray Cockburn

Manukau Institute of Technology Tauranga City Council All About Plumbing Ltd Reliance Worldwide Ltd Whangarei District Council Auckland Council MacDonald Industries Hydroflow Distributors M Cockburn Plumbing

Auckland Tauranga Christchurch Auckland Whangarei Auckland Auckland Auckland Auckland

2011 Backflow Committee Absent: Richard Aitken, Diana Staveley , George Little

Upcoming Events

2011 Backflow Group Conference

The 2011 bi-annual Water New Zealand Backflow Conference was held over Queens Birthday weekend in Nelson. The conference was attended by nearly 50 delegates from around New Zealand and included a range of speakers covering a wide range of backgrounds. This was the perfect opportunity for delegates to increase their knowledge and understanding of backflow and network with peers. The conference was a huge success and thanks goes out to everyone who contributed to this.

The conference was followed by the conference dinner and awards cermony at Petite Fleur. Awards were presented to:

• Brad Winkel - the highest achiever in the Backflow testers course
• Kevin Healy - The Golden Tap, outstanding contribution and services to the Backflow industry
• Murray Cockburn - The Golden Tap, outstanding contribution and services to the Backflow industry
• Murray Ellis - The Golden Tap, outstanding contribution and services to the Backflow industry
• Richard Aitken - services as a Backflow member.

The Backflow group also held their Annual General Meeting at the conference with a new committee being formed.

2010/11 Committee:

Nick Fleckney
Graeme Mills
Richard Aitken
Kevin Healy
Diana Staveley
George Little
Logan MacDonald
Wayne Shields
Murray Cockburn
Amy Aldrich (Water New Zealand SIG Co-ordinator)

The Backflow SIG welcomes the new committee and looks forward to hearing from them in the future.

View the draft Minutes from the 2010 AGM here.

View the Presentations from the Conference here.

View the Photos from the Conference here.

2009 Backflow Group Conference

The 2009 bi-annual Water New Zealand Backflow Conference was 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 2011

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:
Amy Aldrich at Water New Zealand, DDI 04 495 0894
amy.aldrich@waternz.org.nz

Approved Backflow Technicians National Database

Please Note: The ABT Database is now on hold as it will be superceded by the National IQP. We will no longer be taking applications for this 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.

Unit Standards for Backflow Prevention

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

Courses for 2011 are now being held around the country. For course content, prices, and registration forms, please go to the NZWETA website or UniTec website for more information on these courses.

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.