Turning off the Hoses
A drought crisis has hit Auckland after the city experienced the driest start to the year on record, which has resulted in Base Auckland’s Rescue Fire Service having to rethink how it does training.
Falling dam levels have resulted in the first restrictions for water use for the city since 1994 and experts warn those restrictions could continue until next summer.
The restrictions include a ban on outdoor water use, which has meant Base Auckland’s Rescue Fire Service has had to limit its water usage.
Base Fire Master Flight Sergeant (F/S) Nick Wyld said as well as training with water, the team normally tests the vehicles every morning by squirting water out of a water cannon on top of the truck to ensure it has the power it needs.
“Our vehicles carry 6,800 litres of water, which we generally use every morning to make sure they are working properly and to train with.
“We were asked by the Ministry for the Environment quite early on to cut down our water use, so that’s what we’ve done. We’ve changed our training routines to make sure that we are doing dry training.”
The training included cutting open cars, more physical training and driving training, F/S Wyld said.
“Those are the activities that don’t require much, if any, water.”
“We will still test the fire vehicle monitors every week to ensure they working as they should, this will ensure that if we have an incident on the airfield we can ensure that it will produce the required volume of firefighting agent.”
By changing the training regime, the Rescue Fire Service was probably saving about 7,000 litres a day minimum, he said.
“The training we are doing is enough to keep qualifications of the personnel current.
“We have also sent some people down to Taranaki to a civilian training area, which doesn’t have water restrictions, and they can use the facility there.”
Base Auckland, on the whole, is also aiming to reduce water use by at least 10 per cent to meet regional restrictions imposed due to the drought.
New water conservation measures to meet the restrictions have been implemented and service personnel are being asked to conserve water use.
Base Commander Group Captain Andy Scott, said in March, the base stopped watering its sports pitches and other green spaces, and washing all buildings and windows.
“Alongside our on-base fire services reducing water use in their training activities, our vehicle fleet won’t be washed anymore, and we have reduced the amount of water we use to wash our aircraft, which is now only done after they have been flying over corrosive sea water.
“We have also closed our swimming pool and moved our sea survival training to the Waitemata Harbour,” he said.
“RNZAF Base Auckland is proud to be a responsible member of our local community, and will continue to look for more ways to conserve water and help the region through this period of drought.”
Defence Force personnel at all Auckland bases are also being encouraged to conserve water at home in their communities by the required 20 litres per day.
