Working for Watercare was a change in direction for Jason Scharvi-Coles. As he puts it: "I fell into wastewater and never came out again." That was 11 years ago and he's still happily working in wastewater as a process technician.

"I was working towards joining the Navy when I was offered a job at Watercare. I decided that I didn't really want to be away for eight or nine months at a time, so I went for this instead."

He started out in a temporary role at the Māngere stores for six months, before getting a job in operations.

"I was a plant operator at the Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant for a year and a half before I was promoted to process technician for the southern region team."

He's permanently based at the Beachlands Wastewater Treatment Plant and also runs the plants in Kawakawa Bay and Waiheke Island.

It's a role that involves "anything and everything", he says – lab sampling, contractor management, working with engineers on projects, maintenance plans – and he's a health and safety representative.

"It's quite a wide-ranging job. I get the chance to do different things all the time. I maintain process to process changes. I'm also hands-on with things like cleaning and maintenance."

He recently managed a complicated job at the Kawakawa Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, where an influent balance tank had to be fully isolated to be re-concreted.

The tank keeps constant flows going through the plant, so isolating it for maintenance was a complex job.

"I managed that job to make sure the contractors were following the protocols for the confined space entry and the job safety analysis (JSA). It was a potentially hazardous job, so it was important that all the protocols were followed properly.

"I was on site so that if something urgent happened, I could control and manipulate the wastewater flows to keep the workers in the tank safe."

Jason says he enjoys the mix of practical and office-based work his role offers, and the team he works with.

"I work with a great group of people. Everyone is really hands on and helpful. It's never the same day to day."

He also enjoys the training opportunities and career progression.

"My manager Iris Tscharntke is always there to help me upskill. I'm doing a leadership paper through Skills at the moment, which I'm enjoying. There's always lots of growth here."

Jason lent his skills to Napier's wastewater treatment plant in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle, spending a month there to help get the plant back up and running.

"They needed some qualified operators to work the night shift. They only had one operator, who had to work four weeks in a row. It was me and an operator from Whanganui.

"It was awesome commissioning the plant. I've only had to do the night shift here once, when one of the pipes inside the Beachlands plant burst and we had to run external pumps. I stayed overnight to monitor everything. I like being there to help fix things and problem solve."

Outside of work, most of his spare time for the past nine years has been spent renovating his house.

"The house was built in 1947 so nothing is straight. You can't buy anything for it, everything has to be custom made. I'm able to do some of the smaller jobs myself, because I used to do some woodworking with my dad and I've learned more on my own since, but we pay people to do the big jobs and anything structural. I'm happy to do the work – it gives me an excuse to buy more power tools."

He and his wife also love to travel and are planning to head to Europe for their next big holiday.

"I got COVID-19 when we went two years ago and we missed out on doing a cruise, so we're going back to do that in Greece and Italy."