Mayor claims Wellington Water got $18m it hasn’t spent

Wednesday, 31 January 2024

Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy says Wellington Water failed to spend $18 million in funding from his city in the past five years.

The region’s longest-serving mayor says Wellington Water — which needs $1 billion a year to fix Wellington’s water problems — can’t even spend the money it already gets.

Wayne Guppy, the Mayor of Upper Hutt for the past 24 years and a previous deputy chair of the Wellington Water Committee, said the under-fire water utility had failed to spend $18 million in funding from his city in the past five years. Wellington Water has confirmed the underspend but said it was closer to $20m over three years — and the money was being spent.

“We are asking for reassurance that if we give them any more funding, they can guarantee they will do [the work],” Guppy said.

“The history is not good.”

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau speaks outside Parliament after meeting with Local Government Minister Simeon Brown about the city's water crisis.

Guppy was one of two Wellington region mayors who on Monday met with Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, to give him reassurance that they were taking action on the region’s evolving water crisis. It came as years of under-investment, a dry and hot summer, mixed with a massive amount of leaks to create a situation in which taps may run dry this summer.

Wellington Water previously said it needed $1b a year for 30 years to get on top of the problems and on Monday it was revealed that Wellington City alone was being asked for $2.5b over 10 years, which was about double its current funding.

Brown had sent strongly worded letters to Guppy and Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau, who also met with the minister, accusing them of not supplying information he had requested via Wellington Water Committee chairperson Campbell Barry, also Hutt City’s mayor.

On Tuesday morning Guppy said “politics” were behind the mix-up, which was sorted out when he talked to the minister. Guppy previously said he had supplied the information he understood was needed.

“The two councils that kept the blowtorch on [Wellington Water], they suddenly get a letter from the minister,” he said.

Unlike other councils, Upper Hutt ring fenced its funding meaning money for one type of water, such as waste, could not go to another, such as drinking water.

Wellington Water chief executive Tonia Haskell said there was actually a $19.8m “underspend” in Upper Hutt over the past three years but said the money was allocated to “live projects”.

This included $16.8m for a Pinehaven storm water upgrade, which was a joint initiative with the Upper Hutt City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council. The project had slowed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and consenting taking longer than expected.

The remaining $3.2m was for joint waste water projects, already underway, for Upper and Lower Hutt. The payment arrangement meant the councils paid their shares on completion, meaning the money showed up as an underspend but the money would be spent.

'We do have the capacity to do more capital development work in Upper Hutt and we have projects in the pipeline if further funding is made available,“ Haskell said.

Wellington Water previously said that, in the year to June 2023, it had done a record number of pipe upgrades and new infrastructure.

Brown on Tuesday said he had staff at the Department of Internal Affairs working with Wellington mayors and council chief executives on how to ensure water for the region.

“My focus is on ensuring that at this stage Wellington City Council and Upper Hutt City Council are taking their responsibilities around water service delivery seriously,” he said.

“There is significant leakage from the pipes. And I want to have assurances that everything has been done to avoid a water emergency here in Wellington.”