CYCLONE GABRIELLE

As NZ Plumber went to print, Cyclone Gabrielle was heading to New Zealand, with more regions set to be significantly affected by flooding. Master Plumbers will provide resources for floodimpacted properties at www.masterplumbers.org.nz. We are thinking of all our readers at this difficult time.

When West Auckland plumber Dale Lovell drove to work early on a rainy Friday 27 January, one side of the road was already closed due to surface flooding.

“The maintenance just hasn’t happened,” says Lovell. “We had flooding two years ago and the council hadn’t cleared out the creeks, which were blocked by slip debris, willows and rubbish. Gutters and cesspits were full of leaves and gravels.”

At around 5pm that same day, flash flooding quickly closed the whole road, rising to dangerous levels. Lovell was still at work when the downpour came and had to make his way home by another route along higher ground.

The phone had already started ringing with customers hoping for help with plumbing emergencies but with so many West Auckland roads flooded or closed by slips, help was impossible.

In the aftermath, Lovell’s Heron Plumbing business has been swamped with calls for repairs, mostly to leaking roofs.

The main issue, however, has been in the civil infrastructure arena, he says. “Customers’ drains backed up and manholes popped because there was nowhere for the water to go. It’s like emptying a swimming pool into a teacup.”

Those devastating flash floods were followed just weeks later by the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle, set to wreak havoc in the same upper North Island regions— particularly the Coromandel—just as NZ Plumber went off to print.

Workload pressures

There is likely to be years of work for plumbing and drainage businesses to deal with in the upper North Island once property owners have cleared up the worst of the damage, made insurance claims and had their properties assessed.

This, says Master Plumbers CEO Greg Wallace, is going to add even more pressure on trades businesses already struggling to fulfil workloads due to all-high building consents and a critical lack of qualified tradespeople.

“Member businesses are already stretched to the max due to the estimated shortfall of 3,500 plumbers. We simply don’t have the workforce capacity to deal with the normal workflow, let alone natural disasters.”

Protecting key infrastructure

With New Zealand inevitably facing more extreme weather events as a result of climate change, maintaining and protecting critical infrastructure is absolutely essential, he notes.

“The recent images of travellers knee deep in water at Auckland International Airport struck me with horror,” says Wallace. “Surely New Zealanders have a right to expect that our airports, hospitals and other key infrastructure are built and maintained to a level that protects against events of this kind.

“Good stormwater and wastewater infrastructure planning and management is essential—and there simply hasn’t been sufficient investment.”

Planning for the future

Housing demand is leading to intensification plans for our cities, and increasing numbers of subdivisions.

Infrastructure must be given priority at the planning stage, not be considered as an afterthought, says Wallace.

“Singapore’s rail network, for example, is given priority before any residential development begins. In New Zealand, we see the opposite strategy. One building goes up and before you blink, 1,000 more appear in a new subdivision without proper analysis of the infrastructure needed to support it.”

New Zealand must have a long-term vision for how our infrastructure will cope with extreme rainfall events, such as this one. As Lovell says, Kuala Lumpur has protected its population from flash