Taranaki’s big watershed decision
Cambridge resident Gerda Elliot does not give much thought to how much water she is using in the shower but the days of leaving the sprinkler on overnight are long gone in her town.
Like close to half of the country, residential water use in the Waikato town is measured by meters – so, rather than paying a uniform annual charge, they pay for what they use. Use less, pay less. Use more, pay more.
‘‘It was like any change – there was a bit of an uproar against it,’’ Elliot says.
But then people got used to it and, if Elliot is right, apart from the overnight watering, got on with life knowing that every 1000 litres of water they used was going to cost them $1.59.
‘‘I don’t think it has made a big difference in water usage overall,’’ she says.
While that may be true for Elliot, generally water meters influence people to use water differently, leading to an overall drop in water consumption of about 25 per cent.
And it is that drop in water use that now sees water meters on the near horizon for both New Plymouth and Stratford.
The argument is simple, the less water we use, the less money councils will have to invest in improving long neglected water infrastructure.
New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) infrastructure boss David Langford has some impressive figures that make the meter proposal in this year’s Long Term Plan seem like a shoo-in.
‘‘If we could cut our water use by a quarter, we could cut the cost for new pipes and equipment from $171 million over the next 30 years to just $50m,’’ he wrote in an opinion piece.
New Plymouth’s council has been raising the politically difficult topic for years but under the leadership of mayor Neil Holdom, a committed water infrastructure champion, it seems almost certain to happen.
Last month, notably weeks before councillors had even had the chance to decide whether 26,000 homes in the region would have their water metered, the council advertised for someone to manage the $18m project.
The job advert was later withdrawn and an apology given but the message was clear – water meters are coming.
Stratford district is also toying with the idea and its council has been met with a near 50/50 split of those for and against its $2.5m water metering proposal.
Much of the resistance to water meters is that they are seen as a pathway to profiting off an essential element of life.
However that is prevented by law and councils can only charge to recover the costs of collecting, treating and delivering water.
So, assuming councils are delivering water cost effectively now, the total charged for water won’t change under a metered system but your share of it might.
Stratford has estimated the introduction of water meters could see its current annual flat rate of $573 drop to $335.
On top of that water use would be charged at $1.69 per 1000 litres.
That could amount to $544 annually for a household of two that does not water the garden, to $961 for a ‘‘large’’ family of four with ‘‘extensive garden water use’’ – so about $20 a week.
How much it might cost in New Plymouth has been far more elusive. Council officers have yet to put a figure on what water charges will look like.
If they were to charge the same as Stratford – $1.69 per 1000 litres – annual water-use charges for New Plymouth residents could range from $720 for a family of four, to $360 for a household of two, assuming each resident used 292 litres per day, as is the average now.
And there may be a uniform charge on top of that.
New Plymouth’s 26,000 households are currently charged $350 a year for water, regardless of how much they use.
The murkiness around what ratepayers will end up paying could explain why 40 per cent of submitters to the Long Term Plan are against the idea. Although
60 per cent support metering in some form.
Waitara councillors Tony Bedford and Colin Johnston believe residents have not been able to make an informed decision because the costs have not been made available.
Bedford is one of a number of councillors who already has a water meter.
Last month he and his wife used
264 litres per person per day in April. While costs are yet to be clarified, for the purposes of the mock bill he was charged $18.33.
Annually that would come to $219, a little over $1 for every
1000 litres.
But it is unclear whether the usage fee is on top of the existing water rate, Bedford says.
‘‘If they take that $350 off people I am happy with that. That is cheaper,’’ he says.
‘‘The only ones that would struggle would be a family of four on a single income.’’
When he had his sprinkler going, Bedford says his usage hit
4000 litres a day.
‘‘If I want to waste that amount of water, I should pay for it,’’ he said.
Few would argue with that. Determining where water is being wasted is one of the benefits of water meters. Because they measure water flow, they can help find leaks.
A water meter trial run in Marlborough last year found one house leaking 67,200 litres of water a day and another 60 ‘‘large leaks’’ of more than 70 litres per day. And this was from a trial of just
180 properties.
Leakage could be why New Plymouth’s per capita water use is approximately 30 litres more per day than the national average, despite being in an area of high natural rainfall.
Meters will help target where to fix the pipes. It is part of the reason the council claims water meters will ‘‘save’’ $130m over the next
30 years.
Another part is that reducing water use helps push back spending on reservoir capacity.
If metering happens, it is expected to save up to 25 or 30 per cent of usage and that is the level of savings needed, councillor Richard Handley says.
The argument that it rains all the time in Taranaki does not hold, ahem, water, because it is not about the rainfall – it is the amount that comes down the river, he says.
‘‘We just don’t have the leeway in the Waiwhakaiho River to support the level of draw, particularly in a dry season,’’ Handley says.
Lake Ma¯ ngama¯ hoe, just south of the city, is New Plymouth’s largest water storage and would provide water for about 10 days, max, if it did not rain.
Two new storage tanks are being built to add 9000m3 of storage from 2022 – about 36,000 bathtubs, or close to 10 Olympic swimming pools.
Many argue New Plymouth has a storage shortage, not a water shortage. And they would mostly be right.
A decision to yay or nay water meters in New Plymouth will be made as part of the Long Term Plan deliberations next week.
If it passes, meters will be put in from July this year to June 2023.
Then comes the mock billing for a year to allow people to work out what they use and fix to leaks.
Actual billing – whatever that may look like – is set to start in July 2024.
Should Stratford forge ahead with its plans, it will be on the same timeline.
Notably, Stratford’s council has given ratepayers a clear choice.
With meters you will pay for what you use and potentially pay less, or reject meters and pay the same as everyone but pay more than you pay now.
If councillors reject meters, their own officers are predicting every household in the district will pay $740 a year for their water by 2023, nearly $200 more than it costs now.
‘‘If I want to waste that amount of water, I should pay for it’’ Tony Bedford