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National | Te Tairāwhiti

Recovery pods prepare Tairāwhiti for future disasters

Twenty disaster-equipped pods are being set up around Te Tairāwhiti to help prepare some of the region's isolated marae for emergencies, such as tsunami or flooding.

The Tairāwhiti Marae Resilience and Emergency Preparedness Project is a collaboration between Te Puni Kōkiri, Gisborne District Council and Tairāwhiti marae collective, Toi Tū Tairāwhiti.

Te Puni Kōkiri team leader Kemara Keelan explains what the pods are made up of.

“They are 20ft-long shipping containers, with power generators, communications equipment, emergency shelter tents and a water treatment unit. We found out with the Tongan volcano disaster that water was very challenging thing for whānau. We’ve got camp stretchers, portable toilets and enough non-perishable food to last 100 people for four weeks, and also got a medical kit as well as a civil defence digital radio. So that's, that's what they're going to be promoting predominantly.”

Hazard modelling

These pods have been identified in “safe zones”, Keelan says. “How the zones have been selected is through hazard modeling as well as local knowledge and knowledge from tangata whenua, so just combining science and local knowledge together to actually identify the best places for these containers to be situated. It’s been a mixture of local level intelligence as well as science.”

Kemara is looking to start the project in the next few weeks for a March 2023 completion.

“It gives us a bit of time to actually do a good job in  implementing the project across Te Tairāwhiti.”

The collaboration between Toi Tū Tairāwhiti, Te Punk Kōkiri and Gisborne District Council is not just for Te Tairāwhit but can be used by any other region.

“During the project we are looking at sharing key lessons and outcomes, and also an evaluation of the project  to share with other regions to show there is a good collaborative model that can be used and utilised around New Zealand.”