“When you go through these co-design projects, I'm yet to see one that fails. I'm yet to see one that hasn't delivered for the community.”

These were the words of water engineer Troy Brockbank, in a recent Water New Zealand Tāwara o te Wai podcast exploring the question many water sector professionals are grappling with - how we move beyond consultation and build genuine partnerships with mana whenua?

As water organisations navigate reform, there’s a risk that engagement with iwi becomes treated as a compliance exercise or a simple tick-box requirement.

Hosts Jon Reed and Emily Afoa are joined by Sarah Nolan, Water New Zealand's 2025 Young Stormwater Professional of the Year, whose article in the July/August Water Journal challenged the sector to think more critically about its approach to iwi engagement.

Sarah says that consultation with iwi and mana whenua can easily become more procedural than purposeful. 

A genuine partnership and achieving better outcomes requires a shift towards co-design, shared accountability, and relationships built in at the beginning of a project.

Also joining the discussion is Troy Brockbank, who played a key role in developing Water New Zealand's Cultural Significance and Importance of Wai training module and its recent transition to an online format.

Together, Sarah and Troy discuss the practical steps water professionals can take to strengthen partnerships with mana whenua in their day-to-day work.

They explore barriers to collaboration, the opportunities presented by current water reforms, and how co-design with iwi can deliver better project outcomes.

Water infrastructure has been identified as the single most significant climate risk in Aotearoa New Zealand, according to the latest Climate Change Commission National Climate Change Risk Assessment report.

In this edition of Tāwara o te Wai, Jon Reed and Hannah Edmond discuss the implications and the impact on the water sector with climate change adaptation specialist James Hughes.

They ask what decisions do we, as a sector, need to make around infrastructure, urban development, drought and flood risk.

For many New Zealanders, flooding has shifted from a distant risk to a lived reality.

In Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland the severe floods of 2023 helped spark a transformation around the understanding of flood risk.

In our latest podcast, hosts Jon Reed and Emily Afoa talk to Auckland Council flood risk leaders Nancy Baines and Nick Brown, about how communities now understand a lot more about flood risk. But how well prepared are they to cope with what’s now an inevitability for many – flooding and its aftermath?

As we ramp up investment in much needed water infrastructure, it’s vital that we get good return and that the investment prioritises economic opportunity, environmental impact and social wellbeing.

In this episode of Tawara o te Wai, Jon and Emily speak with Jeff Whitty from the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission – Te Waihanga about what is needed to ensure an effective, efficient and resilient water infrastructure future.

New water entities are being set up across the country. Faced with challenges around affordability and the need to address the long term infrastructure deficit, it’s been said that the success of the Local Water Done Well reforms will largely hinge on the experience, calibre and courage of new Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) board members.

In this episode of Water New Zealand’s Tawara o te Wai podcast, hosts Jon Reed and Emily Afoa discuss the water sector governance reform with two experienced watersector leaders - a former water utility CEO and past-President of Water New Zealand, Raveen Jaduram and Water New Zealand’s chief executive, Gillian Blythe.

Information disclosure will play a central role in improving the performance, accountability and long-term sustainability of Aotearoa New Zealand’s water services.

In this edition of Water New Zealand's Tāwara o te Wai podcast series, hosts Jon Reed and Emily Afoa put the spotlight on the Commerce Commission to unravel what the information disclosure aspect of economic regulation means for councils and suppliers.

They spoke with the Commission’s principal engineer, Emily Botje and economist, Tim Hewitt.

Attracting people to the water industry is becoming a key challenge - with thousands of extra skilled staff needed to fill job vacancies over the next 30 years.

In this Water New Zealand Tāwara o te Wai podcast, hosts Jon Reed and Emily Afoa spoke to two recent Water New Zealand award winners, Roanna Purcaru, who is the 2025 Young Water Professional of the Year and Jared Esaiah, who won the Trainee of the Year Award at this year’s Water New Zealand Conference and Expo.

They discussed what it was that drove these two successful employees to join the water sector and what could help attract more of the right people to work in water.

How do you grapple with issues facing a community that will be below sea level by the turn of the century?

It’s clear that something has to change.

Jonathan Rowe, from the South Dunedin Future programme says the community is now looking at six possible solutions – from fight to flight and a range of options in between.

He spoke to Tāwara o te Wai hosts Jon Reed and Emily Afoa about how the initiative – a joint approach between the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council - is working through the complex issues of creating a new climate resilience community.

Indigenous values and knowledge are increasingly embedded in our relationship with water both in Aotearoa New Zealand and across the Tasman.

Ahead of Māori Language Week and the 10th IWA-ASPIRE and Water New Zealand Conference & Expo 2025 at Ōtautahi Christchurch, our hosts Jon Reed and Hannah Edmond are joined by Principal Aboriginal Cultural Advisor at Beca Hunter H20, Phil Duncan.  Phil’s a member of Australia’s Gomeroi Nation.  Also joining the discussion is Emily Afoa, Pou Whakarae at Tektus and Kairangahau at Pūrangakura, the Māori independent research centre.

Listen to this episode of Tāwara o te Wai, as Emily and Phil discuss how the growing alignment of indigenous knowledge and western science, along with collaboration and connection, is helping reframe our relationship with water and the wider environment.

Councils have been under pressure to meet the September deadline for Water Services Delivery Plans and as part of that, finalise decisions about their future organisations – whether to form new Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) either on their own or across regional boundaries, or go it alone and continue to provide services in house.

But whatever the decision, there won’t be a business as usual option.

New requirements around financial ring fencing, transparency, regulation and service delivery mean that they will be under scrutiny to meet new rules and standards.

In this latest podcast, hosts Jon Reed and Emily Afoa discuss the impact of the Local Water Done Well reforms with Water New Zealand chief executive Gillian Blythe and Nick Davis, an economist and partner with the advisory firm MartinJenkins.