Fixing up Wellington’s water the focus in 2025: Tory Whanau

Friday, 24 January 2025

With the extra money the council invested over the past year, work crews have fixed more than 4000 leaks, says Wellington mayor Tory Whanau. (File photo)

Tory Whanau is Wellington’s mayor

OPINION: This time last year Wellington was challenged by some serious summer water restrictions.

One year on, I’m glad to say we are not facing the same risk but we are likely to stay at level one restrictions all summer.

What’s changed? Well, obviously, the fairly dismal weather has helped (silver linings I guess!), but more importantly, the hard work done to reduce the number of leaks around the city has been crucial.

At its height last year, we had a backlog of nearly 1000 known leaks around the city, resulting in the loss of millions of litres of fresh, clean drinking water every day.

Footage shows water gushing down the street

This was unacceptable. At the time, I set out three actions to address the problem: a record investment in water infrastructure, improving Wellington Water’s efficiency, and water meters.

We delivered a record $1.8 billion investment in water in the Long-Term Plan, including an extra $5.5 million for fixing urgent leaks last year.

Nearly every council in the region, including the Wellington City Council (WCC), has committed to installing water meters in the future so we can better monitor leaks and reduce the wastage of our precious wai.

We are starting to see the results of prioritising water in our budget.

With the extra money we’ve invested over the past year, work crews have fixed over 4000 leaks, bringing the daily backlog down to just over 200 leaks at the beginning of January 2025. Those efforts, combined with other measures, have enabled the city to reduce its water consumption by a massive 20 million litres per day!

“No matter what choices we make, households will be charged more than they are currently to fund this work,” Tory Whanau says.

While this is good news, ultimately, we need to replace, rather than patch up our ageing network of 3000km of pipes.

The cost of undertaking this work across our whole Wellington region is roughly $15b-$17b over the next 20 years. After the Government reversed the previous water reforms, councils and ratepayers were left shouldering this responsibility, which is, frankly, unaffordable under our current settings.

Over the last six months I have, along with other mayors in the region, worked on a new solution. We are proposing to establish a new regional water entity that will own all water infrastructure – from the Kaitoke dams to the pipe that runs to your house. This entity will be separate from councils and will charge water users directly, rather than through rates.

Increased investment from Wellington City Council has helped reduce water leaks by over two-thirds – with backlog leaks reduced from 936 in January 2024 to 206 at the beginning of January 2025.

This approach provides the entity with the scale and borrowing capacity to deliver the required water upgrades more efficiently and cost-effectively over time, compared to the alternative of each council going it alone.

It will not be easy. Establishing a new regional entity is a complex undertaking and the task of replacing ageing water infrastructure is massive. No matter what choices we make, households will be charged more than they are currently to fund this work.

Some people have rightly raised concerns that transferring water infrastructure from councils to a new entity could diminish democratic oversight and accountability for residents.

The bottom line for me is that a new regional entity must adhere to a consumer charter. This charter should be a set of clear commitments that the new entity will not overcharge users, that bills will be transparent and easily understood, that water disconnections will never occur, and that privatisation will never be an option.

The gains we have made in the last year give me confidence that we can do this. It will be a very long road to perfect pipes but with the right set-up, focus and commitment we can turn our water infrastructure around.

While there is much debate and media attention focused on other council projects such as cycleways and car parks, this decision will undoubtedly be one of the most significant Wellington has ever made.

I encourage residents to take the time to engage with the issue and understand the available options when public consultation takes place in March-April.

If we get this right, summer water shortages should be something of the past. We must treat water like the taonga it is and protect it for generations to come.