Water, water everywhere – now is the time for action

Kia ora,

We’re a month and a half into the new year, and it’s already been one to remember. I hope you’ve all had a safe summer and are keeping as dry as possible during this extreme weather. 

Over the last few weeks, it seems as though we’re always preparing for the worst as mother nature makes herself known. I’ve always been an advocate that technology can be a solution to our actions towards sustainability, and I believe that through IoT sensors and data analysis we can be more equipped as a society to prepare and mitigate the consequences of climate change. 

Last week, our collaborative working group with BlockchainNZ, The Ledger of Things, hosted a webinar to promote the first whitepaper in our series covering IoT and decentralised ledger technology. It was a great session that covered the use-cases of energy, water, and supply chain logistics. In case you missed it, you can view the webinar here. We’re already planning the next volume in the series, but this time tackling cyber-security, human movement data, and digital identity. If you’d like to stake your claim as a thought-leader, reach out to our team to contribute to our next volume.

During the webinar, I placed a call to action for our members to submit their thoughts to parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee on the Three Waters Legislation Bill. Submissions have now closed to the general public, but we make sure to add our thoughts. You can view the NZ IoT Alliance submission here. Our submission was in response to section 389 of the bill, which (briefly) touches on allowing the Chief Executive to authorise people to read meters to capture water usage. Another point we raised within our submission is that within the bill, not once was data mentioned.

Many of us in the IoT space can agree that the traditional approach to meter reading is out of date, costly, and does not capture accurate or timely data, and to set out legislation that does not capture the potential use of technology, nor the importance of data is concerning. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape the water industry and the use of technology, and a thorough water data strategy could be the key at making New Zealand a leader of the pack. 

Our NZ IoT Alliance Executive Council has come back in full swing and last week hosted both our first Executive Council meeting as well as our 2023 strategy session. We’re developing a few key themes for 2023 as well as key initiatives and activities to help create a connected Aotearoa, and will keep you informed in the next newsletter.

Until then, stay safe and dry!

Alison Mackie 

Executive Director

NZ IoT Alliance

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Read more: February Newsletter

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