Wellington explores ‘Three Waters’ on its own terms - with neighbours

Wednesday, 11 December 2024

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Wellington City Council favours forming a regional Three Waters organisation with Porirua, Upper Hutt, and Hutt City councils.

A recent report proposed including others, but Masterton, Carterton, South Wairarapa, Kāpiti, and Horowhenua opted out.

Wellingtonians will have a chance to have their say on the water options next year.

An alternative Three Waters programme just for the capital and its surrounding cities appears to be the future for Wellington.

Wellington City Council has agreed on the water options it’ll be putting forward for public consultation next year, as part of meeting the Government’s Local Water Done Well legislation, with the council’s preferred option being “A Wellington Metro Three Waters Council Controlled Organisation”.

It would see the formation of a regional entity with Porirua, Upper Hutt, Hutt City and Greater Wellington councils.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said it was unfair her council is continually criticised for the city’s water problems.

“We need to do best by our residents and our infrastructure, and it seems with the information that we have, working as a region is the way to go,” mayor Tory Whanau told councillors at the meeting Wednesday.

“This particular council has had to pick up a lot - we’ve had to carry a lot of the weight of water infrastructure problems. We get criticised a lot in the public, and I think that’s deeply unfair,” she added.

Three Waters was a proposal put forward by the last Labour Government to address cost issues for councils on water infrastructure, by creating four new regional entities to take control of these council operations.

The current government scrapped that, introducing Local Water Done Well, with plans for new council-owned water services, debt financing arrangements, and changes to water standards as a way to reduce compliance costs.

In October this year, a report from an advisory group led by former Wellington Mayor Dame Kerry Prendergast, supported the concept of a regional water entity, with additional councils included for the Wellington area - Masterton, Carterton, South Wairarapa, Kāpiti, and Horowhenua.

All of those councils have since opted out of that plan.

Water meters are currently part of all future council water plans.

Porirua, and Hutt City (which represents Lower Hutt) have chosen the regional entity as their preferred option already, with WCC councillor Ben McNulty telling Wednesday’s meeting he had been told Upper Hutt would soon formally be choosing the same.

Currently, the region has Wellington Water - described in the meeting by councillor Sarah Free as “a failed experiment” - which is a council-controlled organisation running the area’s three waters.

The various councils own the infrastructure, with Wellington Water tasked to manage and deliver the water services.

This new, proposed entity would do the same, however, it would also own the assets and have greater borrowing power.

At the time the report was released, Dame Prendergast estimated the region would need to spend between $15 billion to $17b on water infrastructure over the next 20-25 years.

Other options on the table for the capital’s water future for the public to consider include creating a Wellington City Council-only Three Waters entity, or keeping the status quo but disestablishing Wellington water and contracting to a new, unspecified agency.

All three options include installing water meters - the report also found households in the region currently pay $1711 a year for tap, waste, and storm water via rates, and it’s expected that the new entity would start charging up to $4000 a year.

Wellingtonians will get to have their say on the options in March 2025.