United effort only solution to solving water crisis

Saturday, 20 January 2024

While this warm, dry weather is a welcome break for most of us, our creaky water system is feeling the heat.

You will likely have heard that Wellington may face water shortages. Because of this we are asking you to take steps to conserve water in the coming months.

When you are being asked to save water, you will rightly ask “but what about the leaks?” And, you have a point – there are thousands of water leaks across the region, and each day we’re losing 60 million litres of water unnecessarily.

But leaks are the tip of the iceberg. For decades central and local government have failed to invest in infrastructure. And as our population has grown and the pipes have aged, this infrastructure has started to fail. Leaks are the visible evidence of historic underinvestment, and they’re a reminder that we can never get ourselves into this situation again.

It’s not quite as simple as “fixing the leaks”, which is the infrastructure equivalent of whack-a-mole. We will continue to fix them. However, it’s the renewal of pipes that’s required to prevent leaks in the first place and, in turn, avoid future water restrictions. That’s not an overnight fix though – a problem decades in the making will take some time to turnaround.

This week, as Chair of the Wellington Water Committee, I wrote to Local Government Minister Simeon Brown to outline actions councils in the Wellington region are taking to address water shortages now and in the future.

On the surface, the solutions seem simple. Councils should install water meters and prioritise renewals. Wellington Water needs to identify and prioritise large leaks to keep more water in the pipes. Councils must also invest in supply and storage.

At Hutt City Council, we are focused on investing in water infrastructure and building new pipes. Over the past year, we have renewed more than 14.5km of water and wastewater pipes. We’ve put millions into fixing leaks, and we’re taking the next steps to ask our community about the introduction of residential water metering.

Water metering will no doubt be controversial. However, it’s our job as leaders to put forward bold and thoughtful solutions to this crisis. Given metering is a proven and established way (worldwide) to reduce water demand, and better find leaks that aren't visible on both the private and public network, it would be negligent not to consider this.

We know what is needed to make sure our communities have an adequate supply of safe drinking water. But substantial change is needed to make this a reality.

Speaking frankly, it all comes down to money. Significant and sustained investment is required over the coming decades. Any delay will kick the can down the road and put at risk our ability to perform a critical role of local government – ensuring our residents have access to clean and safe water.

But we can’t do this alone. We must work together across the region, and with central government, to tackle this enormous challenge and the costs that come with it. We cannot put all these costs on ratepayers who will quite simply be unable to afford them.

The Government has made the call to scrap Labour’s three waters reforms. Fair enough, that’s their prerogative. But the underlying need for reform hasn’t changed. We need scale. We need access to funding. We need to stop the costly duplication of services across 78 councils.

As both a resident and Mayor, I’ll be blunt - our water infrastructure is not good enough and previous decisions over decades have failed us. It’s putting our community in a difficult situation now, and only a united effort from councils and government will pull us through.

• Campbell Barry is Mayor of Lower Hutt and Chair of Wellington Water Committee.