Auckland’s seven year wait for water
Officials are calling for the Government to intervene as drought-stricken Auckland enters its seventh year waiting for Waikato Regional Council to decide if it can have more water.
Auckland Council-owned Watercare applied to the Waikato Regional Council in 2013 to more than double its 150,000 cubic metre daily intake from the Waikato River.
The Waikato River Deferral Queue is 441 applications deep; Watercare’s application is 111th in the pile.
Legally, council has to address each application chronologically and officials are calling it an example of a failure of the Resource Management Act, which the Government is reviewing.
With no end to the application process in sight, Auckland deputy mayor Bill Cashmore is calling on the Government to decide, saying seven years is an inordinate long time to wait for Watercare’s application to be heard.
In response to queries, Environment Minister David Parker has agreed to look into what is taking council so long. ‘‘Until your inquiry I was not aware of this delay. I will look into it to see what is responsible. Seven years is a long time.’’
‘‘There are a lot of people who say Auckland should sort its own stuff out,’’ Cashmore said. ‘‘Well, we’ve got a lot of people in the Waikato who work up here too. We’ve got to help solve each others’ problems.’’
Auckland’s daily water needs are forecast to climb over the next three decades as its population grows by an estimated 800,000 people. Severe drought is widespread across Northland, Auckland, and northern Waikato.
Central government should deal with Watercare’s application and not a local council, agrees Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett, describing council as ‘‘either badly resourced, doesn’t have a system that is flexible enough to respond to urgency, or is incapable of prioritising for the good of other communities’’.
Safeguarding the city’s water needs is a national issue, Barnett said, but Auckland’s water shortage could also be blamed on mismanagement of a resource, given the water available from the river.
Waikato Regional Council said it’s working with Watercare to find solutions and Watercare was allowed to take water during periods when the river was flowing higher than usual.
‘‘I’d be very surprised if Watercare said to you that they don’t have enough water today from the Waikato River to provide for their immediate needs because their consent application is about their longterm needs,’’ Waikato Regional Council industry and infrastructure resource use manager Brent Sinclair said.
‘‘Because we’ve got so many applications for water from the Waikato River, and because the applications collectively take us above the amount that is able to be allocated, the law says . . . we have to process them in the order that they were received by the council.’’
About 150 billion litres of water flows past Watercare’s Tuakau plant each day.
‘‘Where there is somebody that’s in the queue that has an immediate need, we say, ‘come and talk to us to see if there’s an alternative way that we can provide for your immediate need whilst you’re waiting to have your application determined,’’ Sinclair said.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said applications like Watercare’s need to be dealt with quicker than the current regime allows – Auckland’s water supply resilience relied on the river. About 17 per cent of its water comes from it.
The Government says the Resource Management Act is underperforming and a review is expected by mid-2020.
Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive Paul Blair said the review was important.
‘‘Whatever we do to reform our resource management system, it needs to be higher degrees of certainty, it needs to be lower cost, it needs to be lower risk, and it needs to find a much better balance between local, regional and national priorities.
‘‘If Auckland ran out of water, and 38 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP was put at peril, it’s not a good outcome.’’