Are you prepared for natural hazards? - A lesson in resilience preparedness

Tracey Mitchell (New Plymouth District Council)

In February 2018 ex-cyclone Gita swept across New Zealand, causing havoc across the lower  North Island and upper South Island. Wind speeds of 104km/hour were recorded in Taranaki (the third highest since records began in 1972); New Plymouth District experienced wide spread power outages, landslips and felled trees. One of those trees became a very big problem for New Plymouth District Council and its potable water supply. 

That tree smashed down through an aerial crossing that was 800m downstream from the main Water Treatment Plant. As existing levels in the reservoirs began to run out, it left 10,000 homes without water for three days and placed some 26,000 properties on a boil water notice. Schools and businesses closed and the estimated economic impact was $4.5million. 

When that tree came down it exposed some short comings in our emergency preparedness. While we had spare pipe and fittings, it soon became apparent that they had not been maintained or updated in years. It was just one of those lower priorities in the daily mountain of work faced by operational staff.

This paper talks about readiness for three water reticulation repairs – do we have what we need for whatever nature throws at us?

New Plymouth District Council has since invested an extra $40 million into the resiliency of its three waters infrastructure, with some of this going towards revamping our “Reticulation Critical Spares”. After fixing the immediate problem and making sure we had replaced the obsolete asbestos pipes we had in store, we then carried out a complete overhaul of the reticulation spares we hold.

This paper describes the process we took and considerations we made to ensure we set ourselves right for future emergencies. We went back to basics to ensure we got it right; what did we consider to be a “critical spare”, where to store spares, how to store spares and are we using the best technology to carry out the repair… is there something better?

As part of this process, we discovered we had a lot of things right, we had some things to improve on, and we came to understand it is not possible to have every eventuality covered. The help provided by local suppliers was invaluable, as they became problem solvers and technical experts on fittings for odd-ball sized pipes.

We have advanced to a point we are building a new purpose built facility that will store strategic pipes and fittings with longevity in mind; and ensure easy access in the dead of night with no power, making it safer and quicker. We are developing a modern inventory system with scan codes, electronic access to instructions and diagrams, and electronic asset life reminders for the perishable items held.

That one tree has helped us focus on our resilience and planning for the three water networks now and into the future.