‘Best asset is underfoot’
Councillor floats idea to sell water offshore in an effort to cut rates
Christchurch’s city council should join forces with local iwi to bottle and sell Canterbury’s famed pure aquifer water abroad to help reduce rates and fund projects. That is the view of councillor Aaron Keown, who believes the city is not getting the best out of an asset he says is ‘‘more valuable than oil’’.
Keown wants to negotiate a partnership with iwi that would see the council and Ma¯ ori jointly own the water in the city’s aquifers.
The partnership would set up its own water bottling operation to sell ‘‘one of the greatest and purest water supplies’’ around the world.
Keown would also like to see a levy imposed on existing bottling operations in the city – businesses able to take water from aquifers for next to no cost.
He floated the ideas – along with a plan on how to market the business – to city council colleagues at a meeting in October and has discussed it with grassroots iwi representatives.
The millions of dollars in income would offset the entire rates bill for Christchurch’s residents and create a high wage economy, he said.
‘‘We are sitting on something as valuable – actually more valuable – than oil, we’re just not smart about it,’’ he said.
‘‘I can see water becoming our number one industry in Christchurch.’’
The issue of water bottling has come to a head in recent months with the granting of a consent to China-owned bottling firm Cloud Ocean Water, which has a factory in Belfast.
Keown’s idea was met with cynicism by fellow councillor Vicki Buck, who said she had ‘‘question marks over the whole endeavour’’.
‘‘I think the really key priority for our water is going to be ensuring, in a time of major climate disruption, that we have enough water – not selling it offshore.
‘‘My hunch is that the people of Christchurch would be sceptical about it.’’
Councillor Raf Manji said the idea ‘‘has merit’’ but needed examination around the quantity of available water, what an operation would look like and how much water could be sold over
and above what is required for Christchurch’s own use.
‘‘We should be getting a resource levy for water extraction regardless, that’s a given.’’
Environment Canterbury (ECan) councillor Cynthia Roberts also welcomed it as having ‘‘potential’’, but said water ownership remained a ‘‘hot potato’’.
She suggested a number of resource consents remain available and could be transferred for drinking water use. ‘‘I think the public want to see water as a commodity that is valuable and not wasted, and putting a price on it starts to do that.’’
A number of hurdles would need to be navigated, among them the amount of water available, the impact on existing consents, Treaty of Waitangi issues and the Government’s position that noone owns fresh water.
Water bottling comprises about 5 per cent of the Christchurch’s total consented water take.
Under Keown’s proposal, water would always remain free for Christchurch residents. In his view, the demand overseas would be significant.