Providing Relief for a Shaken City

It’s not every day you get asked to provide temporary relief for a city in shock – but that unusual request proved no obstacle for the Canterbury Port-a-Loo team.

Port-a-Loo has provided over 600 portable sanitisation units to areas like Avonside, Brooklands, the CBD and over half to one of the worst hit areas Kaiapoi, after the 7.1 earthquake rocked Christchurch earlier this month, with after-shocks continuing for most of September.

Simon Chamberlain, Port-a-Loo Canterbury Manager, says the demand for a temporary restroom solution was nothing he had experienced before. “It’s a big deal for us when we are asked to supply 150 for an event! So this tipped the scales a little,” he said.

With the quake critically damaging waterways and sewerage systems, particularly in Kaiapoi, the focus has been on repairing the infrastructure under the roads to reinstate the water supply. So damage to household drains has left many families still with no water or sewerage services. In response, Simon and his team “have lined Kaiapoi’s streets with Port-a-Loos to ensure those without sewerage systems are taken care of.”

As they gradually begin the process of collecting the portable toilets from areas where they are no longer needed, Simon can’t praise his Canterbury team enough. “You would expect the guys to be tired now that the novelty has run off, but I haven’t had a single complaint or someone questioning the job that needs doing. They haven’t needed constant directions, have taken initiative and made my job incredibly easier.”

With the situation still dire in Kaiapoi, the portable toilets will be a fixture for some time in a number of streets. “We aren’t expecting to pick up the Port-a-Loos from for at least another month,” says Simon.

Port-a-Loo is a subsidiary of Hirepool, New Zealand’s premier rental solutions provider.
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