Litiana Bainimarama sees plenty of similarities between Tairāwhiti and Fiji’s approach to disaster response but she’ll still be taking a few titbits away after her visit to the Tairāwhiti Emergency Management Office (TEMO).

She’s the manager for emergency planning and coordination with the National Disaster Management Office in Suva and is in New Zealand as part of a memorandum of cooperation between the two governments.

Ms Bainimarama is spending time in Tairāwhiti and Wellington at NEMA (the National Emergency Management Agency). She was given a full presentation of just what TEMO has in place to ensure the 42 communities around the region are supported during an emergency.

TEMO manager Ben Green gave her a high level overview of what the organisation had been doing, including purchasing desalination units, hybrid solar power pack and other things to ensure a community was self-sufficient for up to four days without needing food drops or other support.

TEMO emergency management advisor intelligence and information systems Kumeroa Papuni-Tuhaka, gave a presentation on the award-winning Common Operating Picture (COP) and how it delivers essential data seamlessly.

TEMO emergency advisor and group welfare manager Dallas Haynes gave her an insight into the welfare function and howthis complex aspect of emergency management had been streamlined and now trained 330 in the wider community who can now assist during emergencies.

Ms Bainimarama says with the Hikurangi Trench near Tairāwhiti and the Vanuatu and Tonga trenches on either side Fiji, it makes them both very vulnerable regions.

“It is impressive to see how Ben (Green) has raised the profile of emergency management and how the team does its best to be sustainable in an isolated area. I think everyone can learn about how important collaboration with the community is and it is so good to see that TEMO walks beside the community here.”

Mr Green’s words that ‘power comes from collaboration’ had resonated with her.

“I like that. It is not about how much money you have or how big the centres are, but about collaborating with all your partners.”

“We too empower our communities to be resilient and not rely on outside for assistance during an emergency.”

There were a number of learnings she planned to take back to Fiji around building community capability, including the likes of the desalination units, portable emergency shelters and prepositioning relief supplies in safe areas – not just places that were easy to access.

In Wellington she spent time learning how NEMA did its catastrophic planning, space weather and its impacts and spent time with the Monitoring Alerting and Reporting Centre.

“I am excited to see how I can now do things a little better at home and happy to share the Fiji experience with New Zealand.”

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