Published 31/05/2018
Award for community infrastructure resilience
Significant Contributions to Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) have been recognised by Minister of Civil Defence Kris Faafoi at an event in Wellington on 30 May 2018.
Mr Faafoi said that the awards ceremony recognised people and organisations who have made a vital contribution to CDEM in New Zealand.
“Through their efforts, they have helped make our communities safer and more resilient,” said Mr Faafoi.
The awards ceremony also recognised innovation in CDEM through the presentation of the Director’s Innovation Award, which was jointly awarded to Wellington Water and Cardno for Community Infrastructure Resilience (CIR): keeping water flowing to 400,000 people following a major earthquake in Wellington.
This award recognises exceptional innovation or creativity that has pushed the boundaries of current CDEM practice in New Zealand.
Wellington Water’s Mark Kinvig (Group Manager, Network Strategy & Planning) and Nick Hewer-Hewitt (Service Delivery Facilitator - Operations, Network & Customer Operations) were at the ceremony held at The Beehive to collect the award on behalf of Wellington Water.
Mark said that the award was a great recognition of the collaboration between Wellington Water and Cardno to deliver the CIR programme of work.
“We are grateful to be recognised for the hard work and innovative approach to delivering this programme in such a short timeframe. The outcomes will help our communities to be more prepared and resilient in the event of a significant natural disaster, and this is something we are very proud of,” Mr Kinvig said.
The CIR programme is jointly funded by central government and the Wellington, Porirua, Upper Hutt and Hutt City Councils, and has three elements:
- building awareness about the need for household water resilience (20 litres per person, per day) to help people cope for at least the first seven days after an earthquake;
- building community water resilience; and
- strengthening water infrastructure.
We’re currently building a comprehensive above ground water distribution network that will provide emergency water from nine new bores, and a number of streams and rivers will be available through 22 new water treatment stations, as well as desalination systems.
For more information about the Community Infrastructure Resilience (CIR) programme of work, check out our emergency water section.