Invercargill Branch Event - September 2024

In Palmerston North on Friday 29 November we learnt about “poo tourism” in Fielding with their new wetlands which gurgled into action in September this year. With the local community this project marks a return to more natural bio-processing. The results so far in the quality of output are better than expected with reduced ammonia levels as well as nitrates. There are already 100s of birds living in the wetlands.

The Āpōpō update included the announcement of the Essential and Advanced Asset Management Certificates which will be available in 2025, and a rundown of the excellence awards and scholarships which opened earlier in the week and close on 14^th Feb 2025. Āpōpō’s growing international connections were also introduced, with more detail of the American Public Works Association by Āpōpō Life Member Kathy Dever-Tod.

Next we heard from emerging leader Kudzai with her insights into asset management. Rome, and Palmerston North weren’t built in a day! It can take 8 people within a council to fix a public loo – the most important thing is that it’s fixed in the right way (long term what is the best solution? Simple fix or complete replacement to get the optimal solution for the community).

Palmerston North City Council shared their journey in lifting the bar on their asset management data – from senior leaders to front line technicians it’s been a massive change process but they can already see the success 🙌 this flowed nicely into our open floor discussion about what we can do to improve asset management in NZ.

Some of the feedback and suggestions from the workshop session:

Despite a hick-up in the catering communication (whew it was delivered to the lunch room), we had a great feed for morning tea and lunch. A huge thanks goes to Palmerston North City Council for hosting this event, and Pump & Machinery for sponsoring!