Water meters ‘not needed’
The idea of using water meters in Palmerston North to encourage people to use less has been dismissed as not rational.
Palmerston North City Council’s water and waste manager Robert van Bentum said installing water meters would cost ratepayers about $10 million, which would not be justified by potential savings.
His comments followed the release of a report by the auditorgeneral using Ka¯ piti, Horowhenua, Manawatu¯ and Palmerston North for a sample study into how local councils were managing water supply challenges.
The report paid particular attention to Ka¯piti’s introduction of water meters in 2014.
But the auditor-general also denied the report should be read as advocating for water metering.
The report concluded that councils that actively managed demand were better placed to respond to future challenges.
‘‘This is because they have taken a more comprehensive approach to providing drinking water that puts emphasis on leak reduction and water conservation, even when access to water is not restricted.’’
Controller and auditor-general John Ryan said that did not mean water meters were the answer for all. ‘‘In the course of completing this audit, I heard from councils a concern that my report could be interpreted as advocating for universal water metering. This is not the case.’’
Van Bentum said although Palmerston North had water-use restrictions to manage peak summertime demand when everyone wanted to water their gardens, it was nothing like the crisis that prompted Ka¯piti to introduce meters.
That area had experienced huge population growth, with retired people moving in and establishing large gardens on sandy soils, ‘‘and there was no more water in the Waikanae River’’.
Instead of investing millions of dollars in a new water source, the council set out to manage demand.
It had worked so well that it was having to put up charges, because people were not buying enough water to pay the operating bills.
‘‘We have quite a different scenario,’’ van Bentum said.
He said the city council had provided the inquiry with ‘‘truck loads’’ of information, and did not quite see eye to eye with the conclusions and focus on managing demand for water.
‘‘Provided we meet Horizons’ expectations [on water conservation], it is not sensible at the moment to spend a lot of money on universal water metering.’’
Van Bentum said the management of water, wastewater and stormwater was a huge issue for New Zealand, and many smaller councils were likely to struggle to afford improvements to meet more stringent standards that could be imposed nationally.
That had prompted Palmerston North to lead research to provide a stocktake of the issues faced by councils in the Horizons region.
There could be potential for the councils to work together more to ensure they provided effective and efficient services, he said.