Water management and climate adaptation - New Zealand

Water management and climate adaptation

Finding solutions together
©Rijkswaterstaat

The Netherlands and Aotearoa New Zealand face similar challenges when it comes to water and climate change. Sea level rise creates coastal management issues. Flooding of rivers and increased periods of droughts require innovative solutions for water management. In the coming years, Aotearoa New Zealand will invest much more in climate adaptation, especially in the area of water. Opportunities to do business in the New Zealand water sector are increasing. It is important to share knowledge and experience between the Dutch and New Zealand water sector, knowledge institutes and government agencies.

Let's connect

Bilateral cooperation

Henk Ovink at Water New Zealand event
Henk Ovink, the Dutch envoy for International Water Affairs at Water New Zealand conference.

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands facilitated various connections and exchanges, such as an exchange between New Zealand and Dutch water experts, visit of the Maori iwi Ngāi Tahu to the Netherlands and a virtual visit of our Special Envoy for International Water Affairs Mr Henk Ovink to the annual WaterNZ Conference in Hamilton and Christchurch City Council.

Christchurch and Rotterdam work together on climate adaptation in a global  Resilient Cities network. Upon invitation of Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb, Christchurch Mayor Leanne Dalziel participated in the Mayors Forum during the online Climate Adaptation Summit hosted by the Netherlands in January 2021.  In November 2021 Mayor Dalziel was a key note speaker at the opening event of the Urban and Rural Development week organized by Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) at Dubai Expo 2020, discussing resilience, innovation and challenges in cities related to extreme weather events such as flooding and heat stress.

Flood management and coastal protection

Dutch dredging in New Zealand
Dutch dredging in Christchurch.

The Dutch water sector works together with their New Zealand counterparts to find innovative solutions to our shared challenges.

Dutch Dredging is doing the maintenance of more than 5 ports around New Zealand and was involved in work the Pacific Island state Samoa.

Dutch consultancy firm HKV teamed up with the New Zealand firm GHD and compiled a new flood risk analysis for the city of Christchurch. This new analysis helps the City Council to determine the goals of its future flood prevention plans and the required preventive measures.

Royal Haskoning DHV works on protecting one of New Zealand’s most vulnerable coastlines in Coromandel and Deltares has been involved in various consultancy and advisory projects in other parts of the country.