68 | INFRASTRUCTURE Hastings District Council: Waiaroha Treatment Plant T T Sue Russell Fresh, clean water a winner for Hastings Waiaroha is a major element in Hastings District Council’s drinking water strategy, which has seen it spend more than $100 million on drinking-water infrastructure. Located in the heart of Hastings, Waiaroha is an award-winning water treatment and storage facility, and education centre. The cutting-edge plant uses the latest treatment technologies to provide pure, safe drinking water to thousands of homes in the city. Waiaroha’s development came in the wake of the Havelock North water crisis in August 2016, which saw an estimated 5500 people become ill with campylobacteriosis in Havelock North. The outbreak was traced to contamination of untreated water supplied by two bores from what was considered to be a confined aquifer. That led to the development of a comprehensive drinking-water strategy, which included 10 new water treatment and storage facilities, new and replacement pipes, upgraded and new pumping stations, and new bore-head technology. The vision, foresight and hard work of many people went into creating Waiaroha – the largest and most publicly accessible element of the strategy. It not only treats and stores pristine water collected from bores nearby, but has also opened up the hearts and minds of thousands of people to a greater understanding and valuing of our precious water resources. Hastings District Council group manager assets Craig Thew says winning the Taituarā Supreme Award and the GHD Award for Environmental Leadership, receiving the Water NZ Environmental Award, and a Highly Commended Award in the LGNZ Superlocal Awards, are worthy recognition of the outstanding work by all who contributed to Waiaroha’s development – from the mayor and councillors, who drove the stragey and its funding, to the three waters team, their consultants and contractors, to the Hastings residents who supported the project and are now using it. ”All of this recognition is meaningful – however, the Taituarā Supreme Award is particularly pleasing, given its focus is on projects providing substantial public good, and the ability of those projects to be used by other council authorities,” Craig says. “With Waiaroha, we have proved you don’t need to hide major infrastructure way out in the country with the extra land purchase and piping cost that brings, and the educational element is scalable to be used either in a physical space like Waiaroha, or in existing buildings, or online.” Once water is extracted from a bore field two streets from the plant, on the corner of Southampton Street East and Hasting St South, it is piped to Waiaroha’s two five million-litre storage tanks. Water first goes through UV reactors and is chlorinated and fluoridated in a continuous 24/7 process. Viewers can see the inner workings of the treatment plant through a large viewing window. Funding from central Government enabled the environmental education element to be incorporated into the facility, opening up opportunities for children of all ages, visitors to the region and local residents alike to really understand the journey of water from the 460 square kilometre Heretaunga Haukūnui (Heretaunga aquifers) through the treatment processes and on to household taps. Waiaroha is a major element in Hastings District Council’s drinking water strategy, which has seen it spend more than $100 million on drinking-water infrastructure upgrades, including a new 4.8km water main from Hastings to Havelock North, eight small community water storage and treatement facilties, and construction of the Havelock North booster pump station, to name a few.
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