The future of ensuring New Zealanders have the best chance of self-sufficiency after a catastrophic event was unveiled in Gisborne on Friday by the Tairāwhiti Emergency Management Office.

Among the guests were the Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery Mark Mitchell, NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency), St John, emergency management and lifeline professionals, and others, all keen to see Tairāwhiti’s operational equipment and capabilities.

“Today represents capability, not just equipment,” said TEMO group manager Ben Green.

Minister Mitchell praised TEMO leader Ben Green. “Without a doubt this is at the forefront of New Zealand readiness,” he said. “Over the last five years Tairāwhiti has had 25 events that have become declared emergencies or gone close. Unfortunately Tairāwhiti has dealt with more than most but that’s meant it has built up expertise and resilience and lead the sector.”

Minister Mitchell said the region should be proud of the multi award-winning TEMO team as well as themselves. The region had led the nation in participation for ShakeOut which again underlined the huge public awareness of readiness for emergencies.

“The reality is that as a country we will continue to be hit with weather events.”

In his time as the minister there had been eight local states of emergency and he now found himself “obsessing” over weather reports. “There is only one other country more likely to be hit with more than us and that is Bangladesh. This is something we have to keep working on.”

There was a big focus as a Government to manage and identify risks and ensure New Zealand is best placed as a nation to deal with such events. Government were working on developing the new legislation for the future of emergency management act with the intent of introducing it during the current term.

Minister Mitchell acknowledged those who had travelled from all over the country to attend the day, and particularly iwi who played such a critical role in emergency management.

“Ben was one of the first controllers I met when I took this position and he told me what was needed to be done as a country.”

He has stuck with that advice and put them at the centre of all Government work with in the emergency response space.

The star of the day was certainly the Garrison, an urban desalination unit capable of producing 1300L/hour, turning sea or contaminated water into safe drinking water. It is the ‘big brother’ of the AquaGen, which has already been distributed to 21 remote communities around the region.

LEDI desalination system designer Dael Liddicoat explained both desalination units saying sterilisation would remove all bacteria and viruses from the water.

“It is a great fail-safe system and I am very proud of it,” says Mr Liddicoat.

The Garrison was user-friendly, could run off either internal batteries or an external generator and met all the necessary health regulations on both sides of the Tasman. It could even be operated remotely through existing or emergency communication networks.

“We are looking at future upgrades to bring the efficiency up even more.” The dry unit weighs around 300kgs.

“I want to generate interest and see these being used in the field.”

NEMA chief executive Dave Gawn said there was most definitely a need to make sure New Zealand had an affordable well-resourced and managed system across the nation. “Tairāwhiti is a region of absolute excellence. We need to replicate this type of resilience for all – one that it deserves. It behoves us to get behind this and to share it.”

Those attending the demo day were also shown a new regional MESH communications network that is powered by peer-to-peer technology independent of digital radios, satellites and cell networks. TEMO has already put in place a network enabling black spots connection to the outside world during emergencies.

Tairāwhiti’s welfare needs assessment system was explained along with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles which are transforming emergency management with real-time support and sensor technology.

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