Ratepayers can’t afford to fix Wellington’s water crisis

Wednesday, 13 March 2024

Wellington Water boss Tonia Haskell has the difficult job of fixing Wellington’s water crisis. Wellington Water only got half the money it asked councils for.

With the region leaking like a sieve, the news keeps getting worse for ratepayers.

A report to be considered at Friday’s meeting of the Wellington Water Committee spells out the gravity of the situation facing the region.

Wellington Water asked for $7.58 billion but councils had only included $3.63b in their draft long term plans, which the four metropolitan councils — Upper and Lower Hutt, Wellington and Porirua — are currently preparing.

“Investment below the funding level recommended by Wellington Water will exacerbate the critical risks faced by the region as well as create new risks,” the report said.

Risks include running out of drinking water, Wellington’s Moa Point treatment plant not being compliant, continuing odour issues from the Seaview Treatment Plant and a lack of planning and infrastructure to meet the expected growth in population.

As The Post warned on Tuesday, the latter could see councils being unable to supply the infrastructure needed for new builds, a situation that would be highly detrimental to the regional economy.

“There is minimal activity to support growth, achieve net carbon zero and improve resilience in all the councils’ programmes.”

Aro Street resident Bruno Dickey has got used to seeing leaks in his street.

Moa Point’s risk level is listed as “high to extreme” due to the failure to fund much needed maintenance, including electrical and control systems.

Wellington Water needs $30b over the next 10 years, a figure that is unaffordable for councils, which Wellington Water says need financial support from central government.

“Most councils are faced with debt headroom constraints which severely limit the ability to fund capital works through loans. The alternative of rates funding capital works would have a significant impact on ratepayers, making such investment unaffordable.”

In the case of Hutt City, it would have to increase rates by 16% over the next five years and 7-12% for the remaining five years to fund the level of investment asked for by Wellington Water.

Despite investing heavily in renewing pipes, the region continues to fall behind.

Wellington Water believes that to reduce leaks and make the network reliable it should be replacing 100km of pipes annually for at least 30 years. It is currently renewing 20km each year.

“Investing under the recommended levels will hinder the reliability and improvements to the network, further depreciating the assets and ultimately impacting the customer.”

If the rate of renewals does not increase, the number of leaks will continue to rise.

In other words leaks will continue to get worse and the cost of fixing the problem will continue to go up.

Although Wellington looks to have dodged a bullet over summer and not run out of water, the risk of doing so is increasing.

Total water demand has risen by 29% since 2014, largely due to the amount of drinking water being lost through leaks.

The region is losing 60 million litres of treated water per day and without more funding, that figure will grow, Wellington Water warned.

None of the councils are proposing to fund Wellington Water to the level required to fix the problem.

“As the network continues to age, we anticipate the number of recorded leaks to continue to increase.”

Wellington Water said it will continue to work with councils currently preparing their annual plans and will be looking for more money.