Water New Zealand says the Crown Review of the Moa Point Wastewater Treatment Plant failure must play a critical role in reducing the risks of a similar occurrence happening again.

Chief executive, Gillian Blythe says it’s vital to examine what went wrong and to learn from the event.

She says Water New Zealand is welcoming today’s announcement.

“The members of the Crown Review team are well respected in the water sector and their combined knowledge and skills will help unravel the series of events that led to the failure.

“We know that the Moa Point event occurred against a long-term backdrop of under investment – nationally - in water.

“A huge amount of investment is needed in the water sector. The lessons from this failure must be understood if we are to invest appropriately and improve the long-term delivery of water services across the country.”

The review will look at the whole lifecycle of Moa Point – design, contractual and governance through to operations and communications post-event.

“It is important that the Crown Review identifies lessons to avoid a similar failure in the future, and provides recommendations that can be actioned by the water sector – whether technical, organisational, operational, governance, contractual or commercial.”

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