Global gold for Hastings water project

Hastings Mayor Wendy Schollum with Takitimu Maori Ward councillors Kellie Jessup, Heather Te Au-Skipworth and Siiam Daniel at Waiaroha. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

There’s gold in the water in Hastings, or at least in the way they’re helping people learn about it.

Waiaroha, a placemaking initiative to turn two giant new central city water tanks into an interactive educational facility, has won the City Nation Place Global Award for best placemaking initiative at a ceremony in London overnight on Thursday.

The international gold award puts Waiaroha ahead of major projects by both government and professional organisations from much larger cities such as Toronto, Stockholm, Vilnius, Sheffield and Cleveland.

All of the competition came from places with populations ranging from 260,000 to three million.

Hastings was the littlest of the lot, with a population of 89,000.

The award judges said Waiaroha was a remarkable achievement – delivering a bold, meaningful project, demonstrating environmental leadership and community building connected to the city’s story.

In the best placemaking initiative category, the judges were looking for evidence that a project “was an integral part of an overall vision for the place brand and contributed to the place brand narrative”.

“We should all be treating infrastructure projects as a placemaking activity.”

They also measured “effective collaboration between place stakeholders – including government, citizens, private sector, tourism and economic development – and evidence the project had made a measurable difference to the quality of life and attractiveness of the place”.

Hastings Mayor Wendy Schollum said it was an extraordinary honour for Hastings and everyone involved in the project.

“From our community who shared their ideas and feedback on the design, the contractors and council staff who did phenomenal work, to iwi who worked closely with the teams to tell the story of Wai, and all of the councillors who supported the concept and funding over the years,” Schollum said.

“To be recognised on the world stage, against major global cities, shows what’s possible when we invest carefully and work together with purpose.”

The principal role of Waiaroha is to supply safe drinking water to Hastings’ urban population.

Hastings District Council chief executive Nigel Bickle said the award demonstrated the district’s placemaking approach stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in the world.

“This is one of the most rigorous international awards of its kind,” he said.

“It’s judged not on appearance, but on strategy, collaboration and real-world impact – and that makes it a powerful endorsement of what our community has achieved.”

The City Nation Place Awards are internationally recognised as the leading benchmark for excellence in place branding and placemaking. This year’s competition drew entries from 28 countries.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.