He’s flown fighter jets, been to war in Iraq , and discussed Roman history with Boris Johnson. Now Jon Lamonte has taken on the controversial job heading Watercare.
Quick word association quiz for Watercare? Mismanaged drought... Overpaid chief executive... Sewage overflows and beach closures.
Just one word? “Shit” – in all its forms.
Welcome to your new job, Jon Lamonte.
The 61-year-old former fighter pilot and navigator came to Auckland in early April to head up the city’s council-controlled water company Watercare, after two years across the Tasman as the head of Australasia’s biggest public transport project - the under-construction, 46-station, 113-kilometre expanded Sydney Metro.
But before that he headed - in reverse order - Manchester’s transport network, London Tube Lines (that’s where he got the job interview with then London Mayor, now British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, where the two men ended up discussing the influence of the Roman Empire on the English capital), strategy and policy for the Royal Air Force, and the UK’s largest air base.
Before that he spent about 15 years in active roles with the RAF, including fighting in Iraq and Kosovo.
Oh, and he fitted in a degree in maths and geology, a masters in defence studies, and a PhD in modern history.
Which is perhaps why Lamonte seems pretty unfazed by the challenge of leading New Zealand’s largest water network with its $11 billion of assets. Even when that job means dealing with the potentially explosive impact of chronic historic underfunding, an ongoing and probably avoidable water shortage, fallout from the resignation and $775,000 salary paid to his predecessor Raveen Jaduram (Lamonte will earn $585,000), Covid-related budget cuts, and massive sectoral upheaval from the Government’s Three Waters reform programme.
When one of your past roles has been to talk to all the families of the first 55 air force personnel killed in the second Iraq War (“the most appalling thing in my life”), anything else seems less important.
“I like challenge and stimulation and this company’s had a challenging year,” Lamonte says. “I was quite happy delivering Sydney Metro, but when I got the call from the headhunters to say did I fancy coming to Auckland, I thought this is a great opportunity. This is a project that has virtually everything.”
What will Lamonte bring to Watercare from his past jobs, particularly the defence force?
Keeping calm under pressure.
Coming up with a plan and executing it.
Leadership and strategy. “The amount of training defence does is enormous compared to the commercial sector,” he told the Inside Infrastructure podcast in 2019.
Another take-out from his time in the military is the importance of empowering your staff, including young staff, to do their jobs, even in difficult situations. Think of the trust given to a 23-year-old fighter pilot heading off on a week-long mission in a warzone.
Then there’s the critical importance of health and safety. “One of the reasons people sadly lost their lives in Iraq is we didn’t always have the right equipment. So the lesson is: you give people the right tools to do the job."
Technology – particularly sensor technology – is another of Lamonte’s focuses at Watercare, and he says his recent experience in the transport sector will help him there. Transport networks around the world are increasingly reliant on intelligent systems using real-time data from smart sensors for everything from letting passengers know the time the next train will arrive to telling engineers if something is broken. Every Sydney Metro train leaving a station will send tens of thousands of data signals from hundreds of sensors and cameras to a central network.
“Trains with brains,” is how Transport for NSW’s ICT project manager Mike Ayling puts it.
“One of things we're looking at at Watercare is what does a smart network mean,” Lamonte says. “That’s not just smart metering, but how do we get live information from all of our assets.”
It’s not easy. Accessing long-buried water pipes to find out what condition they are in is far more difficult than checking out trains or metro tunnels.
And the state of much of New Zealand's underground pipe network is far from clear, even to the water companies trying to keep them in a state of repair. Hence Wellington’s much-publicised water geyser problems.
Watercare is one of the better performers nationally, with the most recent Water New Zealand benchmarking survey suggesting none of Auckland’s water supply pipes, and only 10 percent of its wastewater pipes, are in a “poor or very poor condition”.
Yet ask about the reliability of that data, and Watercare admits it is “uncertain” - as shown by the number 4 on the bar chart below:
Meanwhile the National Performance Review highlights particular problems with Watercare’s ability to monitor its “wet weather overflows” – when rainfall makes its way into the sewerage network (often through broken pipes) and overloads it. That’s often when you get contaminated beaches or waterways.
“In Auckland the very high frequency of combined sewer overflow operation in wet weather presents a significant challenge in terms of reporting,” Watercare told the report’s authors, adding it is implementing a range of initiatives to resolve the problem.
“Against this, the complexity of the system and the sheer number of sites, many of which are very difficult to accurately monitor, makes reporting unreliable.”
Watercare’s 20-year asset management plan, due out mid-year, will detail the organisation’s maintenance and renewals programme, Lamonte says. He wants to see a smarter network replacing the old pipes wherever it’s possible and cost-effective.
“The technology is out there.”
Another priority is training staff, he says. The Water NZ report suggests across the country, less than 50 percent of staff have any qualifications, including an apprenticeship and this is “surprising and quite concerning”.
“Going forward... the Regulator will be looking for assurances the industry is employing the right people with suitable qualifications and training, and a commitment to staying up-to-date with the latest technologies,” the report says.
Lamonte says Watercare’s 10-year, $2.4 billion partnership with Fletcher Construction and Fulton Hogan to work together on water and wastewater infrastructure is an opportunity to increase the skills level in the water sector and provide better job security and career pathways.
It won’t be easy, but it's way easier than going to war.
No reason to panic.
