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Friday 19 March 2021
Learning sustainable living
Sustainable Living Course students with tutors Kerryn Easterbrook and Robina McCurdy (far right back row) and co-ordinator Zahra Lightway (immediate left of the sign). Photo: Ronnie Short. RONNIE SHORT
Golden Bay’s Sustainable Living Centre is currently hosting its fourth Sustainable Living Course and, unlike its predecessors, 90 per cent of its attendees are New Zealanders. The 10-week course is headed by course co-ordinator and Sustainable Business Project Management tutor Zahra Lightway, and Permaculture Design and Community Resilience tutor Robina McCurdy. Evolving from the results of feedback from students of the previous three courses, changes have been integrated for the March intake. The main request was for an increased focus on mental, emotional, physical and spiritual resilience. Wellbeing/Possibility Management guest tutor Ana Norambuena will be focusing on personal sustainability. She brings 14 years of experience to the course and the intention to create a framework for greater personal wellbeing and sustainability. As she explained: “Possibility management offers a context – which is to create a soil where we can plant something together. So, it’s a framework focused on sustainability in
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relationships – how I relate to others and how I relate to myself. It’s more about which kind of attitude we develop with each other. “ The main point about possibility management is the invitation to go into a radical level of responsibility about everything.” The course employs up to eight tutors in total, and other local professionals are employed to teach part time, including Kerryn Easterbrook, Rita Scholten, Sol Morgan and John Massey. Robina and Zahra agree the course is beneficial to the Golden Bay community, with students paying for accommodation during their stay and some bringing cultural activities and groups that support local businesses. During the course, visits are made to at least 15 local businesses, natural building premises and organic growers. In order to complete and achieve certification, students are required to create a plan that could be applied to some aspect of sustainable living. “Each plan has to implement some way of increasing sustainability, either for themselves, the region or the planet,” explains Zahra. On full completion, students receive
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THE GB WEEKLY, FRIDAY 19 MARCH 2021
a Golden Bay Sustainable Living Course Certificate and an International Permaculture Design Certificate. “That would enable them to begin their practices as permaculture designers,” says Robina. “They generally leave with a renewed sense of hope and inspiration for the future so they come out with the tools and the knowledge they need to create and be that change,” added Zahra. With a maximum number of 16 students and just 11 currently on the course, there are options for locals to undertake stand-alone modules. Those include foundation courses in natural building, permaculture, soil health and preparation, food forests and orchards. The September course has been expanded by an additional week to allow more time for integration of the whole learning experience, explained Zahra. “We’re in a consistent cycle of review from feedback and change in response to student experience.” For more information visit: www.your-sustainable-life.com
Waimea Dam progress JO RICHARDS
Like it or loathe it, the Waimea Dam is already an impressive sight – unsurprising as it’s one of the country’s largest construction projects. When completed the dam will be 53m high, 220m wide, and hold 13 billion litres of water. Impressive statistics, but what the figures don’t convey is the visual impact of such a huge man-made structure rising up from the floor of a rural river valley. Since The GB Weekly’s previous visit to the site just over a year ago, not only has the dam’s embankment risen dramatically, but costs have also escalated – to a current estimate of $158.4million. Last Friday’s visit revealed that the structure has so far reached a height of around 20m – almost half way to its design elevation. Like one enormous gabion basket, the downstream sloping face is essentially a wall of rocks enclosed behind steel mesh, which is anchored back into the main structure. This 10m thick drainage layer – a crucial component of the dam’s design – was to be constructed from argillite excavated on site, but testing revealed the rock was prone to shear fracture, making it unsuitable for the job. Consequently, much of the drainage material is being sourced from an external supplier, at additional expense. Waimea Water Limited CEO Mike Scott, the man with overall responsibility for building the dam, explains: “We’re bringing in greywacke from Taylors’ quarry about 5km away. It’s good quality drainage material.” Not all the drainage rock has been imported, however; around two-thirds of the way up the dam face, the colour of the rock changes abruptly from grey to brown. “That’s indigenous rock we salvaged from on site,” says Mike. Geological issues and design-change costs aren’t the only contributors to a welldocumented series of budget overruns. This time last year, work came to a sudden halt as the country went into Covid lockdown for several weeks. Although the project resumed when restrictions eased, just like the long-term complications associated with the disease itself, the build is suffering some painful after-effects. M ike explains that the recently forecasted $11.2m Covid-related costs arise from three main factors. “First we have direct Covid costs, including MIQ; second we have lost time – a whole season of perfect dam-building weather, which... Continued on page 2
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