NZ’s water system feeling the pressure
The Government is not ruling out taking over the management and operation of the country’s water infrastructure from local authorities.
The so-called three waters (freshwater, wastewater and stormwater) are under ‘‘increasing pressure due to multiple issues, and many local authorities are struggling to respond’’, according to a report commissioned by the Government last month.
Yesterday, Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta addressed a water summit in Wellington where she told stakeholders a Three Waters Review, led by the Department of Internal Affairs, had found that all three water services to New Zealanders were inconsistent and patchy.
She said a new system was still in the ‘‘conceptual stage’’ and ministers were due to report back to Cabinet later this year with recommendations for upgrading the country’s infrastructure, while also improving water quality and drinking standards.
The Cabinet would make a decision next year on what reforms it would consider, and design options for them. New legislation might also have to be put before Parliament.
After her speech, Mahuta said the Government wasn’t ‘‘ruling anything in or out’’ when it came to what a new three waters model would look like. ‘‘There is a very strong view, however, that the public ownership of assets is core to that conversation.’’
About 68 territorial authorities supply their own water. If the Government moved to an aggregated service, like Wellington Water, ‘‘that would require a big conversation of councils’’.
Asked whether one option was to take the management and delivery away from local authorities and have it run by central government, Mahuta said ‘‘it’s an open conversation and live’’.
The Government would also look to international examples, including Scotland, which has just one water delivery service, although Mahuta was not sure that would suit New Zealand.
Two proposals put to the summit by Mahuta yesterday were to move towards regional, publicly owned water providers, or alternatively a small number of crossregional, publicly owned water providers.
One result of a more aggregated model was that urban ratepayers would be subsidising regional ratepayers.
Mahuta said that was a ‘‘very real prospect and in some places could be an advantage’’.
‘‘Obviously rural water suppliers, rural communities, struggle with keeping up in investment in infrastructure,’’ she said.
As part of the summit, Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) has released a new discussion paper looking at a review of water quality.
The key finding was that the regulatory framework for freshwater and drinking water ‘‘doesn’t take into account adequately the costs for communities to meet these standards’’.
‘‘If new standards for water quality are set, we need to understand the costs, how we fund these and whether communities can afford them on their own.’’
LGNZ president Dave Cull said Havelock North’s campylobacter contamination ‘‘highlighted issues including funding, ageing infrastructure and the pressures of climate change and population movements’’.
It also ‘‘reiterated that we need to change how we’re doing things’’. The Government is reviewing its terms of reference into its Royal Commission into Historical Abuse in State Care. Minister for Internal Affairs Tracey Martin said inquiry chairman Sir Anand Satyanand had reported back on the Government’s draft terms of reference, and she was now considering his recommendations. They would be considered by a group of ministers, before a final Cabinet decision was made.