Effective action on water
Greater Wellington Regional Council boss Daran Ponter has said that “fixing” the leaks is the top priority, and mentioned extra storage.
Wrong: top priority is reducing the leaks via effective action. Adding meters and storage, and playing whack-a-mole repairing leaks, is mere tinkering and a cash cow for contractors, if there is no pipe replacement; and leisurely pipe replacement at 1.5 km/yr (0.024% of 6300 km total) is next to nothing.
Increasing this work 100-fold (126 km/yr) would replace the 20% of pipes in “poor or very poor condition” by 10 years, and 100% by 50 years, creating a cost-effective resilient water supply.
GWRC/WCC should prioritise replacing the leaky pipes, focusing on areas where the “poor condition” pipes lurk. That is likely where most of the 3000+ identified, plus unidentified, leaks exist.
Partial funding could come from postponing indefinitely the $300 million cost to install water meters and costly extra storage projects, noting Omaroa Reservoir cost $70 million on its own. PJ’s stopping the unwanted Shelly Bay development was a good start in reprioritising. Statutory management seems necessary. financial assistance.
The deterioration has been progressive over decades and under the watch of successive governments, and therefore the responsibility is shared.
Each general election political parties tailor their policies to win votes and gain government power. But are those tailored policies the policies the country needs to progress, to be stable and secure, or are they policies simply to gain power? Our perilous infrastructure is giving the answer.
A further example, blindly following its ideology, the Government is giving tax cuts to the wealthy the country cannot afford, funding the cuts by creating for many people ill health and early death.
Being a low-tax country, and to deal with the present and future challenges, we need to, among other measures, increase personal tax, beginning at the top, as suggested by 100 of the wealthiest people in the country. The trouble is this does not fit the prevailing political ideology. We are a low-tax country trying to be a First World country on the cheap.
Gordon Parr, Eastbourne to be sure it is a genuine bank or supplier they may be talking to. When the standard fraud response from a supplier is the consumer has a responsibility to verify that a call or email is valid, that is deliberate, intentional and avoiding the liability they have. It is a bank responsibility to protect their consumers.
Every direct-debit bank transaction should require a two-factor verification. It is common practice that suppliers will ask for a debit transaction confirmation before they will supply goods or services. A twofactor verification system for all bank debit transactions would provide consumers with an opportunity to verify the validity before any fraud can occur. Benefit for the banks, (reduce fraud investigations) and benefit for consumers, they have the control.
Phil Malpas, Ōtaki generation 26-fold? Not likely.
If we are really serious about decarbonising our society by 2050 there is no way around nuclear power generation. Nuclear power is emission free, pollution free, safe, reliable and cheap. Small modular reactors are close to production.
They are self contained with encapsulated fuels. A small nuclear reactor can power 500,000 to 1 million houses. Technology is advancing and should not be ignored. I understand it needs political guts to start this discussion, but it is needed if we are serious about Carbon Zero 2050. Geert Gelling, Waipukurau
Dr Peter Dodwell & Stephen Moore, Hataitai