Former Kāpiti mayor says ‘bite the bullet’ over meters

Wednesday, 7 February 2024

“This ludicrous plan will be redundant,” Waikanae Beach resident Brody McKenna predicted in a letter to The Dominion Post in October 2012 over proposals to bring in “unwanted” water meters at the Kāpiti Coast.

More than a decade later, as residents in nearby Porirua, the Hutt Valley and Wellington City scrambled to get emergency water tanks for looming water shortages, Kāpiti has its water supply well under control.

Wellington Water needs $2.5 billion over the next decade from Wellington City ratepayers to fix the pipes ‒ and mayor Tory Whanau warned the capital’s pipe problems won’t be solved for decades.

In contrast, the Kāpiti Coast has been free of water restrictions, credited to the introduction of water meters more than a decade ago by then mayor Jenny Rowan’s council.

Her advice to today’s mayors is to bite the bullet and follow the same route, saying Kāpiti was in “exactly the similar environment” to what the Wellington region is facing today when it brought in metering.

“This region has been on notice about its water for at least 20 years,” Rowan told The Post. “Don’t go crying to central government for money until you’ve actually done your own footwork. They have a responsibility now to face it and do it.”

When Rowan ran for her first mayoral term in 2007 she pitched for a new dam to solve the district’s water troubles. Once she was elected new information saw her change her mind.

“When I got into office, we clearly could see [it’s] more than just a simple answer of a dam because of the cost,” she said.

In 2009 the Kāpiti Coast council changed its building codes, mandating all new builds must have a 10,000 litre rainwater tank for toilets and outdoor taps; or a 4500 litre rainwater tank and a diversion system to use greywater to water the garden.

The council later rolled out a package of water reforms in 2011, combining a river recharge scheme by pumping water from bores to top up the Waikanae River ‒ where Waikanae and Paraparaumu get its water supply ‒ if it runs low, introducing water meters, and tying down a site for a future dam.

But it had to sell the package to “very tough” public opposition.

Jackie Elliott, a current community board member and former district councillor, organised a protest to deliver a petition signed by more than 7000 people calling for a referendum on water meters. Her lobby group placed a billboard in front of the then-mayor’s house.

“Water meters do not produce one drop of extra water for this district … we view with horror the ongoing expense that would have such little benefit,” wrote Jim and Diane Evans, one of hundreds of submiters that were against a user-pays system.

The council should “should drop its single-minded obsession with water meters and look at other ways to reduce water demand”, a press release by the Kāpiti Water Action Group declared.

Its spokesperson, Tina McIvor, suggested the council needed to investigate why some parts of the district were using less water and “encourage other areas to adopt this behaviour”.

Although councillors voted 8-3 to introduce the package in June 2012, Rowan paid the ultimate political price: she was ousted in the following year’s mayoral elections, finishing third behind winner Ross Church and K Gurunathan, who eventually took the mayoral chains himself in 2016.

Deputy mayor Roger Booth, councillors Tony Lester and Peter Ellis ‒ who supported water meters alongside the mayor ‒ lost their seats. Looking back more than a decade later, her political career’s demise was worth it because it was the correct thing to bring in meters, Rowan said.

When the meters became operational in 2014, the council immediately discovered 443 leaks and the amount of water lost through leaks dropped by 90%. In the decade since, the district’s private water use plunged by about 26%.

The council said it found itself in a situation where they could handle leaks easily and have them fixed within two days.

“The proof is in the pudding. We are sitting here today without restrictions,” Rowan said.

“I completely understood when we were heading into this extremely fraught and upsetting debate … that I probably won’t survive politically. But that doesn’t deter you from the reality of what actually needs to happen.”

Kāpiti’s water charges are divided into two parts ‒ in general, each property currently pays a fixed charge of $222 this year and $1.19 for each cubic meter of water it uses. The bills arrive every three months.

Waikanae Beach resident Brent Falaniko’s household of three adults paid $95 for their last water bill, and he believed the meters did help conserve water.

“When I used to consider water as being free, I used the paddy field irrigation method on my lawns. Now I definitely think twice before I get the hose out,” he said.

Murray Eggers lives alone and watered his garden during summer‒ his latest bill stood at $64.7, but only $10.71 was for water used.

The five people living at Penelope Christoffel’s household at Paraparaumu Beach paid about $95 each quarter for water, which was less than before. “Those who say this is about revenue gathering need to look at how successful it has been in areas where meters have been introduced,” she said.

Kāpiti Coast residents, current and future, had Rowan and her council to thank for the present situation, incumbent mayor Janet Holborow wrote in an op-ed for The Post last September.

“There were quite a lot of leaks in the council infrastructure which we were able to identify and fix,” she told The Post this week. “People were able to find their own leaks and fix them on their properties. .

“I think if we didn’t have water meters, we would be facing the same problems as the rest of the Wellington region.”