By Tallat Mehmood, Water Sector Leader and Committee Member, WaterAble
A truly future-ready water sector must be designed to work for everyone – including the people with disability who work in it and rely on its services.
I have spent more than 24 years working in the water sector across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the Middle East. My career has included water supply, wastewater, dams, flood recovery, infrastructure delivery, capital programmes, governance and board roles. Over that time, I have seen how strongly water shapes people’s lives.
Safe water and sanitation are not optional services; they affect health, dignity, housing, education, business, industry, climate resilience and community confidence. That is why I have always seen the water sector as a sector with deep public purpose.
Alongside my technical and leadership career, I have become increasingly passionate about disability inclusion. I am a committee member of WaterAble in Australia, and through that role I have been involved in work that is trying to make the water sector more accessible, more practical and more honest about the barriers people with disability can face.
Disability inclusion and good leadership
For me, disability inclusion is not a separate issue from good water-sector leadership; it is part of building a strong, fair and future-ready industry.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, about one in six people living in households was identified as disabled in the 2023 Household Disability Survey. That is around 17 per cent of the population. When we talk about the future of the water sector, workforce capability, customer service, infrastructure resilience and community outcomes, people with disability must be part of that conversation.
New Zealand is also going through major change in how water services are organised, funded and delivered. Local Water Done Well is focused on addressing longstanding water infrastructure challenges and meeting economic, environmental, and water-quality requirements. This reform environment creates both pressure and opportunity.
If accessibility and inclusion are not considered early, they can easily be pushed into the background; but, if they are built into planning, governance, service delivery and workforce systems from the beginning, the sector can create better outcomes for everyone.
My own view is simple: people with disability should not have to keep adjusting themselves to systems that were never designed with them in mind. The responsibility should be on organisations to identify and remove barriers.
Adjustments for equality
In many workplaces, capability is still judged through a narrow lens. We may notice how confidently someone speaks in a meeting, how quickly they respond, whether they can work in a certain physical environment, or whether they fit an existing way of working. But those things do not always reflect a person’s true skills, judgement, experience or leadership potential.
A person may need information in writing after a meeting. They may need flexible working arrangements, accessible software, more processing time, ergonomic equipment, a quiet workspace, or a different way of organising a task. These are not special favours; they are reasonable adjustments that allow people to contribute on equal terms.
Many disabilities are not visible. A person may be managing pain, fatigue, neurodivergence, mental health, sensory issues, mobility challenges, chronic illness or another condition that others cannot see. Their capacity may also vary from day to day. That does not mean they are unreliable or less committed. It means workplaces need to be mature enough to understand human difference.
One of the challenges is that people may not feel safe asking for support. Even when an organisation has a disability policy, the lived experience can be different. Someone may worry that disclosure will affect how they are judged, promoted, included or trusted. They may also worry about who will see their personal information and how it will be used.
That gap between policy and lived experience is where practical action is needed.
The example set by WaterAble
This is one of the reasons I value WaterAble’s work so much. WaterAble is a network of people with disability and allies in the Australian water industry. Its purpose is to improve inclusion and access for employees and customers with disability. It creates opportunities through professional development, leadership programmes, mentoring, networking, advocacy, inclusive sector events and practical resources.
One of WaterAble’s most important initiatives is My Inclusion Passport. This is being developed as a secure and confidential way for employees of member organisations to record their reasonable adjustments and share them with appropriate people when needed. The key principle is that the information belongs to the individual; the person decides what to share, when to share it and with whom.
That matters because one of the most tiring parts of workplace disability experience can be having to explain the same needs repeatedly to different managers, teams or systems. A well-designed inclusion passport can reduce that burden and help create a more respectful process.
Good intentions are not enough; inclusion needs to be built into policies, systems, recruitment, procurement, technology, workplace design and leadership expectations.
The opportunity for New Zealand
I believe the New Zealand water sector has an opportunity to learn from this type of work and adapt it to the Aotearoa context.
The challenges in New Zealand are not only workplace challenges; they also relate to how people with disability experience water services as customers and community members.
For example, when a storm event or severe weather disrupts water services, people with disability can face additional risks. A boil-water notice may appear simple, but it may be difficult for someone who cannot safely lift heavy pots, access clear instructions or receive alerts in an accessible format. If flooding, storms or power outages affect water, wastewater or transport systems, people who rely on mobility aids, support workers, medical equipment or predictable routines may face greater consequences.
This is why resilience planning needs to include disability perspectives. Emergency communication should be accessible. Public information should be available in formats that people can understand and use. Water service providers should think about customers who may need additional support during outages, contamination events or major disruptions.
There is also a design issue. Water infrastructure is often discussed in terms of pipes, pumps, treatment plants, storage, stormwater, renewals and compliance. These are critical, but the water sector also touches public spaces, toilets, drinking fountains, recreational water facilities, customer-service systems, digital platforms, public consultation processes and emergency messaging. Accessibility should not be an afterthought in these areas.
Too often, accessibility is treated as something to be added later if there is time or funding. I believe that is the wrong approach. Accessibility should be part of good design, good governance and good customer service from the start.
In my New Zealand roles, including at Christchurch City Council and the Nelson Regional Sewerage Business Unit, I have seen how important it is to balance technical, financial, environmental, community and governance considerations. Water-sector decisions are rarely simple; they involve long-life assets, public money, regulatory obligations, climate risk, community expectations and future generations.
That is exactly why disability inclusion needs to be part of mainstream decision-making. It should not sit at the edge of the organisation as a separate human resources activity. It should be visible in asset planning, emergency planning, customer service, workforce strategy, procurement, digital systems, governance papers and leadership development.
The New Zealand water sector is dealing with major reform, ageing infrastructure, climate pressures, affordability challenges and workforce needs. These issues are difficult, but they also create a moment to ask better questions:
- Are people with disability represented in water-sector planning and consultation?
- Are customer communications accessible during normal operations and emergencies?
- Are recruitment and promotion systems fair to people who work or communicate differently?
- Are workplaces designed so people with disability can contribute fully?
- Are procurement processes considering accessibility in technology, facilities and services?
- Are leaders confident and trained to respond well when someone asks for an adjustment?
- Are we designing water services for the full community, or only for the easiest customer profile?
These are practical questions. They do not need to be treated as political or uncomfortable. They are part of building better organisations.
A call to action
My call to action for the New Zealand water sector is to move from awareness to embedded practice.
- First, involve people with disability in the design of workplace systems, customer services, emergency planning and infrastructure decisions. ‘Nothing about us without us’ should be more than a slogan.
- Second, make reasonable-adjustment processes simple, confidential and trusted. People should not have to fight the system to get basic support.
- Third, build accessibility into procurement and technology decisions. Many barriers are created when organisations buy systems or design processes without considering how different people will use them.
- Fourth, develop leadership pathways for people with disability. Inclusion is not only about entry-level access; it is about progression, influence and decision-making.
- Fifth, treat disability inclusion as part of sustainability. A sustainable water sector must be environmentally responsible, financially disciplined and socially fair.
WaterAble has shown that practical sector-led action is possible. Its leadership programmes, mentoring, advocacy, networking, inclusive events and My Inclusion Passport initiative provide useful models that could inspire similar thinking in New Zealand.
I would like to see water organisations in New Zealand work together on this. That could include utilities, councils, water service organisations, industry bodies, regulators, training providers, unions, consultants, contractors and disability-led organisations. The aim should not be to copy Australia exactly, but to adapt good ideas to New Zealand’s own legal, cultural, community and water-sector context.
The water sector needs skilled people. It cannot afford to lose talent because systems are inflexible, recruitment is inaccessible, managers are unsure how to respond, or people do not feel safe discussing their needs.
When we remove barriers, people can bring their skills, judgement, creativity and lived experience to the sector. That strengthens organisations, improves decisions and creates better services for communities.
For me, this is both personal and professional. I have spent my career working in a sector that exists to serve people. If water is about health, dignity, resilience and public value, then our workplaces and services should reflect those same values.
The future I want to see is a water sector where people with disability are not simply accommodated, but recognised, supported and valued as contributors, professionals and leaders.