A new water filtration being deployed by the Tairāwhiti Emergency Management group is the first of its kind worldwide. Pictured at a Temo demonstration day at Gisborne's inner harbour on Friday are (from left) LEDI systems engineer Rhys McCormack, Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell, Temo group manager Ben Green, LEDI founder and engineer Dael Liddicoat and National Emergency Management Agency chief executive Dave Gawn. Photo / Zita Campbell
A new water filtration being deployed by the Tairāwhiti Emergency Management group is the first of its kind worldwide. Pictured at a Temo demonstration day at Gisborne's inner harbour on Friday are (from left) LEDI systems engineer Rhys McCormack, Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell, Temo group manager Ben Green, LEDI founder and engineer Dael Liddicoat and National Emergency Management Agency chief executive Dave Gawn. Photo / Zita Campbell
Gisborne can now produce a significant amount of drinking water during severe weather events through a first-of-its-kind filtration unit that converts seawater into fresh, drinkable water for 10,000 people per day.
It is another boost to the region’s emergency response capacity, with Tairāwhiti Emergency Management (Temo) group manager Ben Green saying there is now more capability in Tairāwhiti than what can be deployed anywhere else in the country.
A Temo technology demonstration day held at Gisborne’s inner harbour on Friday, and attended by Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell, featured a filtration unit demo by its Australian engineers.
The unit, named the Garrison, weighs 300 kilograms, fits on the back of a ute and produces 1000 litres of drinkable water per hour.
LEDI founder Dael Liddicoat developed the Garrison, alongside LEDI systems engineer Rhys McCormack.
The touch screen display meant a university degree was not needed to use it, Liddicoat said.
The new unit is a follow-on from its predecessor - the AquaGen system - developed by Liddicoat, which is the size of a large suitcase and can produce 90 litres an hour from salt water or 200 litres from freshwater.
Liddicoat said the system ran through a UV sterilisation on the output which killed bacteria to make sure it was fit for consumption.
It was designed to support small communities that might be cut off in a disaster situation, he said.
Tairāwhiti has 21 of the AquaGen systems available in rural, remote communities.
Green initially brought six into the region and Ngāti Porou Taiao ordered another 15.
Liddicoat said the idea for the Garrison came when they started looking at what they could do on a larger scale to support a bigger community during emergencies.
The Garrison and AquaGen systems have similar designs, running consumable pre-filtration at the front.
“You buy the filters to replace both of these things down at the local hardware store,” Liddicoat said.
Basically, the systems pressurise water, then push it through what’s called ‘reverse osmosis’, Liddicoat said.
“The systems that are in this [are the] same systems that you can see inside a large-scale desalination plant. So we’ve basically miniaturised that technology into this case to be portable.”
The AquaGen can produce 90 litres of fresh water an hour from salt water, or 200 litres from water from rivers or dams. Filters for the AquaGen can be bought at local hardware stores.
Liddicoast said the high-pressure pump inside was powered using the same technology as that in electric vehicles.
The motor is rated for upwards of 20,000 hours of continuous use and needs to be serviced after 8000 hours of use.
“So the idea is that nothing inside the box will ever need to be replaced.”
It can be plugged into generators and solar panels and has an internal battery that lasts an hour.
LEDI engineers and co-developers of the Garrison demonstrate how to use it.
The need for the emergency response across New Zealand
During his introduction to the unit, Mitchell said Gisborne had had 25 severe weather events in the last five years that had either gone to or been near a local state of emergency.
“The reality is we are a country that is going to continue to be hit with weather events.”
In his short time as minister there had already been eight local states of emergency declared, including the recent fire in Selwyn, Canterbury, he said.
“There’s a big commitment to make sure that the Government invests in New Zealand’s systems to ensure that it is best placed to continue to deal with these events.”
National Emergency Management Agency chief executive Dave Gawn said the units were just one element of the innovative approach that New Zealand needed to create an affordable, well-resourced system across the country.
The genesis of the idea
Speaking with Local Democracy Reporting, Liddicoat said in 2019 he developed a small purifier to develop water for helicopter engines. It was not designed for drinking water but was making purified water.
Engineers Australia wrote an article on it, which Green, who had been trying to find similar technology, saw and he reached out to Liddicoat to see if he could design something to fill the region’s needs.
“I sort of got a good idea of what you guys needed exactly and developed the AquaGen which was brought to Gisborne in December last year as the demonstrator,” Liddicoat said.
“We’ve done this in cost for this development because Gisborne will be running a fair bit of our testing for us.
“I guess that’s the benefit of being early adopters; you don’t have to pay.”
