Watercare Services Limited

What a turnout! For today’s Flashback Friday we’re heading 🔙 to Ponsonby in May 1907, where quite a crowd had gathered. The reason? The mayor at the time, Arthur Myers, was about to turn on the water supply to the reservoir on the corner of Karangahape and Ponsonby Roads. While there were two reservoirs initially, named Ponsonby No.1 and Ponsonby No.2, the second of the two had begun to deteriorate in 1907, so it was decided that only No.1 would be used going forward. The city’s water supply had originally come from Western Springs, but with the area expanding so quickly and the quality becoming a bit iffy, the team realised that another source would be needed. And that brings us back to the scene in front of us and to Mr Myers. With a few turns of the valve there, cos’ you know, everything was done manually back then, water began to flow through the pipes from the Waitākere Reservoir. Yup, the Waitākere Reservoir was supplying water to Aucklanders before the dam was completed in 1910. The Waitākere Reservoir held roughly 1 billion litres of water at the time it was built, and if you compare that to the 100 million litres the Western Springs Lake held, well you can understand why the crowd in this photo had a lot to whoop and cheer about 👍     Photo credit 👉 Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19070516-06-05 #FlashbackFriday #History #Water #Industry #Auckland #Celebration #Celebrate #Teamwork #Team #Education #Flashback #Memories #WaterSupply

Yup, school may be out for a few more days but for us, education is always in 📖 This week’s lesson? Wastewater soup. Yup, our water literacy educator Sarah recently held school holiday sessions for sKids holiday programmes to educate our tamariki about the things that make up our wastewater. The ideal ingredients? Well hopefully you know the answer – the 3 Ps: pee, poo and toilet paper. But of course other things end up in our pipes too, and this is what the kids made their ‘soup’ from 🥣 While things like toothpaste, laundry powder and soil also get in there, wipes are a big no-no. Once their soup had simmered away for a bit it was time to put it to the test and see how it was going to come out of the wastewater treatment plants they had created. While definitely not edible and very different from our friend chicken noodle soup, the kids walked away from the session with a bit more knowledge about what happens to their 💩 when it's flushed down the loo. Well done team, you certainly cooked up a storm for this one 👍   #Education #Teamwork #Team #Wastewater #Auckland #Inspiration #Challenge #Teachers #Learning #Educating #Soup #Ingredients

For this week’s meet the team post we’re shining the spotlight on someone that’s just, well, met the team 👋 Thomas Rawiri is six weeks into his new role as a senior engagement specialist for the north Auckland region (Mātanga mataamua tūhonohoho ā iwi - Raki) and is loving it. When Thomas isn’t at work he can be found practicing with his Kapa Haka group, but more on that mahi in a moment. Relationships are key to his current role, with Thomas spending his days fostering relationships with iwi and the wider Watercare team. His goal? To make sure every relationship is reciprocal and to inspire others to value and engage with Te Reo Māori. It’s this drive for cultural value that sees Thomas out on his weekends, performing and practising with his Kapa Haka group. His group recently represented New Zealand and performed at the Shanghai International Tourism festival, something that, you know, doesn’t happen every day. The group’s next challenge? Taking out the national title at Te Matatini o te Kāhui Maunga 2025. For now though, Thomas is happy spending time with his family and enjoying the gifts that those relationships bring him 👍 #Team #Community #WaterIndustry #Auckland #Communication #Relationships #MeetTheTeam #Water #Teamwork #Engagement

... well and truly 🐈 We’re amazed that 14.4 per cent of Aucklanders still think it’s OK to flush kitty litter down the loo. Here's why we've got our claws out 👉 the litter binds with water to form cement like clumps that clog your pipes and ours. That’s one cat fight our team doesn’t want to get into. This Unblocktober and every month for that matter, do your bit to keep the sewer flowing by chucking kitty litter in the bin 👍 #Plumbing #Wastewater #WaterIndustry #Unblocktober #Blockage #Campaign #Education #Awareness #Infrastructure #Knowledge #Auckland #Cat #Pets

You could say this week’s Drool Over Tools Tuesday is a catch 🎣 This thing right here is an alpha boxfish drone. Not to be confused with its mate, the yellow boxfish, which can be found in the Pacific Ocean 🐠 The alpha boxfish drone helps the team clean the intake screens in our dams and inspect and keep an eye on our underwater assets. What’s an intake screen you ask? It’s the first thing that our water goes through before it heads off to a water treatment plant. It’s a big job, but as the saying goes, somebody’s got to do it. While it doesn’t have fins or a tail, the alpha boxfish drone does have 8 3D-vectored thrusters, meaning it can move in all directions. It also has a good lighting system, we’re talking 10,000-lumens, which is needed cos’ it can travel to depths of 300 metres. It has a 4K front camera, which gives the team clear footage of what is going on down below. Oh, and sensors too! To complete the intake screen cleaning, the team work in pairs - one person operates the drone from the control station while the other person rolls out the communication line. Once the boxfish is in place, it uses a rotary cleaning brush to clean out the intake screens and voilà, job done. No wonder we like this fish in and out of the water👍  #WaterIndustry #Auckland #Teamwork #Team #Tools #Mechanical #Engineering #Electrical #Tech #Operations #Innovation #Drone #Sensors #Fish

Yup, our team at the Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant recently gave the term divide and conquer a new meaning when they worked together to fix an air leak in one of the 900 diameter pipes. The air line sends air via aeration blowers (think big fans) to the reactors, which work with microorganisms to treat the pee that you flush down the loo. So, having it up and running is kind of important right? Anyway, back to the dividing and conquering. First, the dividing 👉 After a fair few tests and careful planning, the team worked out that dividing the plant into two parts would be the best option to be able to get the repair sorted. To do this, they changed the course of the wastewater coming into the plant and redirected it to go through the newer treatment process reactors known as Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR). To break it down real quick, BNR uses microorganisms to remove the unwanted nutrients from the water. And they say Biology is boring 😏 Once this new pathway was up and running, it meant the team could turn off the aeration blowers to the older reactors, as they weren’t being used, and focus on repairing the leak. Now, the conquering 👉 the team had to make sure there was no pressure remaining in the air line- manually opening 54 small air valves to do this. They then used fibreglass to repair the leak and painted it with resin that hardens as it dries. After that it was business as usual. We appreciate your mahi team 👍 #Team #Teamwork #Auckland #WaterIndustry #Infrastructure #Wastewater #Construction #Engineering #Partnership #Work #Biology #WastewaterTreatment #BeforeAndAfter

We can 100% resonate with Ariana Grande’s lyrics 👉 “I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it”. Last year, our Central Interceptor project wanted the green light to extend the massive wastewater tunnel being built beneath Auckland to Pt Erin in Herne Bay. And, they got the green light to do just that 🚦 which takes the tunnel to 16.2km in total length. What everyone wants from the tunnel is fewer wet weather overflows into local waterways, and that's what everyone will get 👍 Earlier this year, our crew kicked off work at the final site on the journey. Take a look at how things are getting on at Pt Erin. Ghella Abergeldie Joint Venture (GAJV) #CentralInterceptor #tunnelling #tunneling #tunnels #WaterIndustry #wastewater #engineering #infrastructure #construction

Stand back and watch the water show 💧 Nope, a pipe hadn’t sprung a leak, rather, these chaps were caught on camera doing an air test on a local bore. This Friday we’re flashing back to Northcote in 1940. The air test was being done on a bore which was at the site of the local reservoir. A wee note on the photo, which ended up in the Auckland Weekly News, read 👉 “Dadda bringing in the first fresh water for Northcote before he arranged for a connection from the Auckland City supply.” We’re not sure who Dadda is, but well done to that man. For those who are interested, Northcote Borough pumped water from Lake Pupuke, but when the level of the lake took a nose dive the Council found its own bores just like this one. Well, that flashback wasn't at all boring 😉 Photo 👉 Arthur Breckon, Auckland Weekly News/Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections N0111057 #WaterIndustry #memories #history #water #infrastructure #construction #work

🚨🚒🚔 You might think major drills involving all the emergency services are as rare as hen’s teeth these days, well, not so much. We did one just the other week. And just because we’re more than 3/4 of the way through tunnelling on our Central Interceptor wastewater project, we haven’t let safety take a back seat. In fact, it’s always buckled into the front seat 🚗 As we mentioned, a wee while ago – as in a handful of weeks – an emergency drill was carried out in the tunnel. Watch what unfolded 🚨🚒🚔 Ghella Abergeldie Joint Venture (GAJV) #emergency #drill #team #teamwork #infrastructure #training #learning #education #tunnelling #tunneling #construction #Auckland

Slowly but surely a flood damaged wastewater pipe in Parnell is getting a scent-sational overhaul 🌹 No, it won't end up smelling like roses - that would be a step too far - but our $13.2 million three-stage mahi to replace the wastewater main located beneath the Parnell Rose Garden will be completed by July. Instead of doing a like-for-like repair that would see the new pipeline go through the garden, we’re building around it. And, the team will be, as we said, putting the petal to the metal to meet the deadline by using a technique called horizontal directional drilling which minimises disruption, speeds up progress, and reduces carbon emissions by around 18 per cent. As you’d expect with this kind of work, there are a few prickles in the grass for locals in the form of road detours and reduced on-street parking. But, once the permanent solution is in place the local wastewater network will be more resilient, and that’s gotta be rosy. For more on the work we’re doing around the garden, hit the link 👉 https://bit.ly/3XXubLs #infrastructure #construction #wastewater #WaterIndustry #work #team #Auckland #progress