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What happens when a tree root meets a stormwater pipe? Usually nothing good. Klaudia Matyjas is speaking at Leafy Lab on...
23/06/2026

What happens when a tree root meets a stormwater pipe? Usually nothing good. Klaudia Matyjas is speaking at Leafy Lab on 1 July about how permeable pavement changes that.

Alongside Jessica Hiscox from Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Māia, Klaudia will be presenting on tree-safe infrastructure and what it looks like in practice across Auckland and beyond.

If you work in urban design, landscape architecture, planning, or just care about how our cities manage water and green space, this one is worth your Tuesday evening.

Good speakers, good food, good drinks courtesy of Greencycle. Supported by Auckland Council.

Free to attend but spaces are limited. Grab a ticket via the link in our comments. 💧

$13 billion. That is what the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods and Cyclone Gabrielle cost New Zealand. And that bill ...
21/06/2026

$13 billion. That is what the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods and Cyclone Gabrielle cost New Zealand. And that bill is still being paid. Not just in repairs, but in insurance premiums, lending conditions, hazard maps, and the slow re-rating of what a safe property actually looks like in this country.

Since then, flood risk has been repriced across the system. Insurers are moving to address-level risk pricing. Banks are underwriting against insurability, not just market value. LIMs now routinely include flood hazard mapping that did not exist five years ago. And consent authorities have tightened their expectations for new builds and alterations in affected zones.

For property owners, developers, and anyone working in the built environment, this is not a future problem. It is showing up now, at renewal, at refinancing, and at the point of sale.

The properties that do best in this environment are the ones whose owners did the work before they had to.

We have written a detailed breakdown of what has changed across insurance, lending, LIMs, and building consent, and what property owners should actually do about it.

Read the full article via the link in our comments. 💧

Roger and Rob are in Hamilton this week at the 2026 New Zealand Plumbing Conference at Claudelands Event Centre.If you a...
21/06/2026

Roger and Rob are in Hamilton this week at the 2026 New Zealand Plumbing Conference at Claudelands Event Centre.

If you are attending, come find them at our stand. From Aquacomb installation to rainwater harvesting, water treatment and beyond, we would love to chat about how watersmart and the plumbing trade work together.

Come say hello! 💧

Two work anniversaries worth celebrating. 🙌Recently, Klaudia marked one year at Watersmart. In that time she has grown P...
16/06/2026

Two work anniversaries worth celebrating. 🙌

Recently, Klaudia marked one year at Watersmart. In that time she has grown Porous Lane in the New Zealand market, built some incredible industry relationships, and made her mark in a big way.

And Julia celebrates four years as a key member of our Design Team. Four years of keeping projects on track, solving problems, and doing it all with expertise and care.

Thank you both. We are lucky to have you. 💧

The brief for architects is changing.Flood resilience is increasingly a design consideration, not just an engineering on...
15/06/2026

The brief for architects is changing.

Flood resilience is increasingly a design consideration, not just an engineering one. How a building meets the ground, how thresholds are detailed, how a site manages water during an extreme event; these are architectural decisions as much as structural ones.

For a long time, flood protection was bolted on at the end of a project. A barrier here, a threshold raised there. An afterthought once the engineers flagged a risk at consent stage.

That approach is no longer feasible. As insurance underwriters start pricing flood risk at individual address level and councils tighten natural hazard provisions, the buildings that will hold their value, stay insurable, and perform over the long term are the ones where resilience was designed in from day one.

That means architects need to be fluent in this conversation earlier than they have been. Not just aware of it, but leading it.

We have written a piece on EBOSS that gets into the practical side of what that looks like: barrier typologies, when physical barriers are not actually the right answer, and why early specialist collaboration makes the difference between a resilient outcome and an expensive retrofit.

🔗 Worth a read if you're working on a project in a flood prone area: https://www.eboss.co.nz/ebossnow/watersmart-flood-protection-designing-for-resilience

Rib-raft foundations are the standard in New Zealand construction. So why should your stormwater system ask for anything...
14/06/2026

Rib-raft foundations are the standard in New Zealand construction. So why should your stormwater system ask for anything different?

Redesigns cost time. They delay consents, add engineering fees, and create conversations nobody wants to have mid-project. For developers and project managers, a stormwater system that requires changes to the structural package is a problem that shows up at the worst possible moment.

Aquacomb is the only in-slab stormwater detention system that works seamlessly with standard rib-raft foundation designs. No additional engineering considerations. No structural changes. No added cost to the package. It fits into what your team is already building.

The system does the work without changing yours.
Talk to the Watersmart team before your next slab goes down.

📞 0800 110 808
🔗 watersmart.co.nz

What would it look like if our cities absorbed rain instead of shedding it?That is the idea behind sponge city design, a...
08/06/2026

What would it look like if our cities absorbed rain instead of shedding it?

That is the idea behind sponge city design, and it is one of the most practical responses to the flooding and stormwater challenges Aotearoa is grappling with right now.

We are hosting a free evening session at the Watersmart Innovation Hub in Avondale on 17 June, in partnership with Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau. Drinks, nibbles, and a genuinely useful 90 minutes for anyone working in civil engineering, urban design, or local government.

Our speaker is Umar Farooq, PhD candidate at Massey University - Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa and Doctoral Scholarship recipient, whose research focuses specifically on advancing sponge city approaches for New Zealand cities. He will be covering:
✅ Why conventional pipe and convey stormwater systems are under increasing strain
✅ How catchment-based design can reduce flooding, runoff, and water quality issues
✅ The role permeable surfacing plays in restoring natural water cycles
✅ Practical ways to integrate water-sensitive design into real projects and policy

There will be a Q&A at the end, so come with questions.
Free to attend. Spaces are limited.

🔗 Register via the link: https://lnkd.in/ejuBMnj3

Auckland water bills are going up 7.2% on 1 July. For developers, the Infrastructure Growth Charge is rising 20%. And th...
07/06/2026

Auckland water bills are going up 7.2% on 1 July. For developers, the Infrastructure Growth Charge is rising 20%. And this is not a one-off, further increases are signalled for 2026 and 2027.

Watercare is investing $13.8 billion over the next decade to improve and expand Auckland's water and wastewater infrastructure. That investment is necessary. But the cost is being passed directly to households and developers, and it is only going one direction.

For developers specifically, the IGC is a one-off fee paid when a new development connects to the network. In metropolitan Auckland that sits at $3,913.33 per development unit equivalent, and that is before any bespoke upgrade costs when existing pipes or treatment plants cannot handle the additional load.

There is a smarter way to think about this. Every litre of water harvested on-site from rainfall is a litre that does not need to come from the Watercare network. Every litre recycled within a building through a system, like , is a litre that does not go back to the wastewater network for treatment. And every development that manages stormwater on-site through or is reducing the peak demand on infrastructure that developers are now paying more than ever to connect to.

On-site water management is not just an environmental decision anymore. With connection costs and usage charges rising year on year, it is increasingly a financial one.

Talk to the Watersmart team about what that looks like on your next project. 💧

🔗 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/watercare-bills-to-jump-next-month-as-aucklanders-face-another-cost-hike/XSKPG5VR3RAKTFASKOYIP45O2Y/

Something is changing in the New Zealand insurance market that every property owner needs to understand.Major insurers a...
03/06/2026

Something is changing in the New Zealand insurance market that every property owner needs to understand.

Major insurers are moving away from suburb-wide flood risk averages. They are now using high-resolution geospatial data to assign risk ratings to individual street addresses. That means your next renewal could look very different to your last one.
Higher premiums. Reduced cover. Or flood protection excluded from your policy altogether. The financial exposure that creates is significant, and it is happening now, not at some point in the future.

Engineered flood protection is no longer just about stopping water. Insurers are increasingly looking for documented, engineered mitigation when assessing a property's risk profile. The right flood barrier, properly specified, gives you exactly that. We can help with that.

Watersmart supplies permanent and demountable flood barriers designed for exactly this situation. If your property is in a flood-prone area, talk to our team before your next renewal.

📞 0800 110 808
🔗 www.watersmart.co.nz

Most stormwater systems need space to work. This one had almost none.A recent Lower Hutt residential build presented one...
02/06/2026

Most stormwater systems need space to work. This one had almost none.

A recent Lower Hutt residential build presented one of the most constrained stormwater installations we have taken on. The architectural design by Parsonson Architects Ltd left limited space beneath the home and deck structure, with structural piles, tight invert levels, and existing pipework all competing for the same space.

The solution was a customised 5,250L Aquacomb detention system, made up of 15 x 300mm pods configured specifically around the site constraints. The modular nature of Aquacomb is exactly what made it possible. No two pods need to sit in a perfect grid, which means the system can work around what is already there.

Watersmart's design and commercial teams worked closely with Jason Brown Plumbing throughout, including multiple design revisions and site visits during construction. The result was a compliant, discreet stormwater detention system built to Wellington Water requirements, tucked completely out of sight beneath the home.

🔗Read the full case study on our website

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