Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton has acknowledged the disruption caused by Ohakune’s recent water supply emergency while praising the extraordinary community-wide effort to support the town and safely restore its water supply.
“This was an extremely difficult event for Ohakune, and I want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding,” he said.
“The response was a massive undertaking involving Council’s water and Civil Defence teams, Veolia, regional Civil Defence staff, Ngāti Rangi, partner agencies, elected members, volunteers and many others.
The many people who stepped forward to distribute water, support residents, share information and help wherever they could demonstrated the strength and resilience of the Ohakune community.”
Mayor Kirton said the messages of encouragement and support posted on social media had been greatly appreciated by responders.
“Many of the people involved worked extremely long hours under very difficult circumstances during both the response and recovery,” he said.
“Knowing that their efforts were recognised and supported by the community meant a great deal to them.”
Mayor Kirton noted that, as with any emergency event, Council would undertake a thorough review of the response to identify lessons and opportunities for improvement.
“This review is about learning from what happened and ensuring we are better prepared for future events,” he said.
We need to understand what worked well, where improvements can be made and what further safeguards may be practical.”
Mayor Kirton added that we also need to find a fair and sustainable funding solution for critical projects such as replacing the raw water pipeline.
“Previous funding programmes such as the Tourism Infrastructure Fund, which helped smaller councils meet infrastructure pressures created by high visitor numbers, are no longer available,” he said.
“It is unreasonable to expect our relatively small number of water users to carry the full cost of infrastructure needed to service a major visitor destination such as Ohakune.
Our immediate focus has been on restoring the water supply safely. The next step is to learn from this event, strengthen the resilience of the network and pursue the investment needed to provide Ohakune with a more secure water supply for the future.”
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