Hastings District Council's lack of a single emergency response plan and failure to communicate ongoing developments and details of its water safety plan widely enough within the organisation was highlighted at yesterday's Havelock North Water Inquiry hearing.
The hearings resumed this week to investigate the cause of the Havelock North water contamination in August last year, with this week's focus on the response by the region's authorities.
Hastings council water services manager Brett Chapman took the stand again to answer questions about the council's readiness to deal with such a disease outbreak, including not having a single document emergency response plan.
Instead, to date the council had a number of documents relating to different aspects of contingency planning, and Mr Chapman said this was something that needed addressing so the information was in one place and easily accessible to all staff.
In discussing the council's crisis management planning, panel member and Wellington city engineer Anthony Wilson expressed concern that risks identified within the water safety plan and contingency measures that needed to be addressed were not being managed at an appropriate level.