The crisis that’s leaving our councils under water

Saturday, 3 February 2024

Wellington’s water leaks are causing massive water loss each week, and pose an enormous bill for the region to properly fix.

Janet Wilson is a regular opinion contributor and a freelance journalist who has also worked in communications, including with the National Party in 2020.

OPINION: Wellington Council and its neighbouring three councils of Porirua, Upper Hutt, and Hutt City Councils may never have heard of the Benjamin Franklin saying that, “when the wells dry, we know the worth of water”, but they’re fast finding out.

The unedifying sight of its residents queueing up to buy water tanks in the face of an acute water shortage, when 44% of Wellington’s water is lost through leaks, is just the latest manifestation of unaccountability that has spread like a disease through the region for decades.

This past week a salve was placed on that unaccountability after Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau and Upper Hutt City’s Wayne Guppy failed to provide information to Local Government Minister Simeon Brown in time, which in turn forced him to invoke his powers under the act to request a more formal “please explain” meeting.

Janet Wilson has challenged Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy for his public statements on Wellington Water.

With both Whanau and Guppy desperately emphasising the meeting’s positives (for Whanau the meeting was “very constructive and positive”, for Guppy it was “straightforward”), possible answers about fixing the pipes were left to Brown. There was talk of changes to the council-controlled organisation (CCO) model, which Wellington Water sits under, as well as ringfencing revenue which would give councils the ability to attract long-term funding and financing.

For Wellington’s citizens that is the least you could expect when you’re already under a level two hose and sprinkler ban, with a 76% chance of moving to level three, where all outdoor water use is outlawed, while local authorities continue planning for the real possibility of declaring a regional state of emergency when the pipes dry up.

It’s nothing new. Wellington has faced the prospect of water shortages for the past three summers. What’s different this time is that Wellington Water and the four councils which own it appear to have gone to war – with themselves.

This week Wellington Water told Wellington City Council it would need $2.5 billion over a decade from the city to fix the network, which prompted Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy to express “major concerns” about whether the work would happen and that the entity had $18 million it hadn’t spent. Guppy is a member of the Wellington Water Committee, which its website says, gives “overall leadership and direction” to the Wellington Water board.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau, pictured after her meeting with Local Government Minister Simeon Brown about the city's water crisis.

As the Mayor of Upper Hutt City for the past 22 years, whose ratepayers are facing major water shortages, shouldn’t he be bearing some of the blame that the water is going to run dry, instead of running down the organisation he’s charged to oversee?

As Wellington’s mayor for only the past 15-months, Tory Whanau has inherited this leaking problem that’s been passed down to her by her predecessors. However, she shares those same predecessors’ predilection for vanity projects while until now neglecting core business.

Those projects include the $300 million plans to refurbish the Town Hall, which council voted on last October. Then there’s the $16 million Lambton Quay upgrade, the $11 million Khandallah Pool upgrade and the $10 million Hutt Road upgrade. All were announced for the potential chop this week as the region’s leaders try to prove to the minister that Wellington is finally, really trying to fund the fixing of the pipes.

And naturally, Wellington’s residents are expected to continue to pay and pay in the form of increased rates, with this year’s increase currently forecast at 15.4%.

But water crises are by no means the preserve of Wellington’s councils. Labour’s Three Waters legislation was itself an (ultimately doomed) attempt to bring some kind of stability to this most fundamental of council services. Ratings agency Standard & Poors last year flagged its concerns about the state of local government water infrastructure and the councils’ ability to meet the costs involved under current ownership structures. Heaping further pain on the sector, it warned that without meaningful action, a number of councils faced ratings downgrades, which would make the already astronomical cost of financing pipe upgrades even higher.

It’s clear there are no cheap solutions or further shortcuts open to councils which have for decades neglected their underground infrastructure in favour of more glamorous, vote-winning projects.

But other councils, like Kāpiti district, have faced up to their obligations and are enjoying the summer without fear of running out. Ten years ago, they installed water meters, a politically contentious move at the time, but one that meant staff could detect hundreds of leaks, leading to a 90% drop in lost water.

Mayor Whanau’s call for water meters to be introduced as part of her council’s long-term plan will be welcomed by some, wildly opposed by others.

If she has doubts about implementing the $130 million project, she should refer to the 2020 report prepared for the Wellington Water Committee which outlined the reasons for introducing them and the business case that went with it.

In Wellington, unaccountability goes in cycles.