Water consents

Nobody in New Zealand owns water, but individuals, companies and councils can apply to their regional councils for consent to use it for an intended, lawful purpose, with conditions usually attached and time limited.

Cr Keown’s day job is to deliver pure, untreated water to Christchurch residents through the city council’s infrastructure, something he and his colleagues have failed to do. It’s election season, so maybe time for a diversion?

Neglect of their day job duties by previous mayors and councils, of which Cr Keown was a member, has given a new meaning to CCC, the Christchurch Chlorine Council.

Even when (if ever) that problem is fixed and we return to pure untreated water, for which we were once famous, Cr Keown might ponder this: ECan, the Canterbury Regional Council, allocates Christchurch its water, so shouldn’t ECan charge Christchurch for it if the city council is going to sell it? Kerry Burke, Merivale