Focus on infrastructural challenges
Looking overseas for Sponge City water projects
Kia ora and Happy New Year. I hope you managed a decent holiday break and are ready to face 2024 with recharged batteries. Given last year’s weather events, the ongoing economic impacts of high inflation and the cost of living during 2023, we embark on this new year with an air of cautious optimism.
The council has plenty on its plate as we consider our fiscal and infrastructural challenges, plus the implications of the new Government’s approach and policies.
At the moment, I am fronting a small delegation of water engineers to China and Japan. The main purpose is to explore water infrastructure, but we’re also celebrating 30 years of friendship with China’s Kunshan city.
Internationally awarded for Sponge City water projects, Kunshan is next-door to Shanghai on the Yangtze River Delta in Jiangsu province.
We want to extend exchanges and co-operation in the food tech and agritech sectors, having fruitful meetings at several commercial food and tech companies, including with the renowned East China branch of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Kunshan is keen to send a delegation to Palmy in June for the Boma Agri Summit and sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for collaboration with the city’s food tech and agritech sectors.
We then went to Mihara in Japan’s Hiroshima prefecture to celebrate five years as a sister city. I am signing a three-way MOU between the Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education, Mihara City and Palmerston North City. This will allow high school students to study the International Baccalaureate programme at Hiroshima Global Academy with three years of free tuition funded by the Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education.
Dominating our trip are delegation members’ inspection of various water and waste management systems, and city renewal projects. We’ve taken in nine water plants in five cities across two countries, looking at how they carry out and deliver infrastructure projects - many internationally-regarded - and for innovative solutions that could have cost-ratio benefits here.
I’ll be back for the first full council meeting of the year on February 7. We’ve already got runs on the board with the completion of the Papaio¯ ea Pl social housing project. Begun in 2019, this replaced 43 ageing units with 85 warm, modern adaptable homes. The final stage was the opening yesterday of Whakaruruhau - the new tenants’ lounge.
Meanwhile, our summer events calendar is in full flight. The council’s free Summer Movie Nights have resumed in parks and reserves around the city, with a full schedule of screenings available at pncc.govt.nz.
This weekend there’s the Superstock Teams Championship and on Tuesday the Waitangi Day celebrations with Rangita¯ ne o Manawatu¯ take place on Te Marae o Hine between 10am and 2pm.
Starting Friday, February 16, there are three days of Central Districts Chapple Cup cricket at Fitzherbert Park. On Saturday, February 17, the annual six-a-side Ethkick football tournament kicks off the Festival of Cultures at Central Energy Trust Arena.
Thursday, February 22 is the opening night for Manawatu¯ Summer Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The season runs in the Esplanade Rose Garden until Saturday, March 2.
Then on Friday, February 23, the Festival of Cultures Lantern Parade lights up Te Marae o Hine/The Square, with the crowd-pleasing World Food, Craft and Music Fair the next day. Attracting many thousands, the festival is popular with Wellington’s diplomatic corps, attracting about 30 ambassadors and high commissioners.
The summer events schedule rounds out with the family-oriented Explore Esplanade Day on Sunday, March 3.
I’m hoping these activities will help make 2024 a summer to remember – and for all the right reasons.