Water regulator ‘all but certain’
New Zealand councils could lose responsibility for providing drinking water under a major reform of national water management, the Government has announced.
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta said she is exploring whether dedicated water providers should take over, as recommended from an inquiry launched after the deadly Havelock North gastroenteritis outbreak in August 2016.
Mahuta confirmed she has ruled out privatisation of existing infrastructure, saying the need for it to remain in public hands remained a ‘‘core pillar’’ for the Government.
In a speech to the Local Government New Zealand annual conference in Christchurch yesterday, Mahuta suggested establishing an independent drinking water regulator was all but certain.
But in a boost for Christchurch, she said Health Minister David Clark is giving ‘‘serious consideration’’ to the possibility of exemptions for certain areas if mandatory permanent chlorination of drinking water is introduced.
The minister warned the country’s water systems face ‘‘significant challenges’’ and that ‘‘neither central nor local government can address these alone’’.
Plans to overhaul three waters infrastructure – drinking, storm and waste waters – are still in the ‘‘conceptual policy stage’’, with government ministers developing a strategy that will involve the interests of iwi and Ma¯ori and reporting back to Cabinet in October.
The minister has just returned from a trip studying the public provision of water services in the United Kingdom. She said any solution here ‘‘must fit our context, what we value and undoubtedly what is in the best strategic interest for our citizens’’.
And she promised it would be a ‘‘core pillar for the Government’’ that water provision would not be privatised.
‘‘Any option that goes forward for consideration must ensure continued public ownership of existing infrastructure assets and we must provide the protections of that assurance through governance and ownership arrangements, at law and ministerial oversight.’’