Wellington City's 'record' pipe investment falls well short of neighbours

Monday, 26 May 2025

A water leak on Grey St in central Wellington.

New Wellington Water figures show the reality of the capital’s “record” investment in pipes is each resident pays just over a quarter of a neighbouring city – and gets fewer pipes replaced.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau in January trumpeted a “record investment in water infrastructure”, with the city council pledging $1.8 billion over the coming decade to get top of an ageing tap, waste and storm water problem.

But that requires future councils to agree to the spending in a period when all water infrastructure will all but certainly be run by a new entity. Agenda papers for a Wellington Water Committee meeting on Friday outline capital spending in the current year by the councils that own Wellington Water.

Porirua had between July 1 and April 30 spent $43.4m on pipe replacements, or $686 per capita. Hutt City spent $44.4m, or $391 per capita, while Upper Hutt spent $13.1m, or $275 per person. Wellington City spent $37.6m, equating to $179 per person.

In a statement, Wellington Water said the spend covered more than just pipe work – for example the rising main on Taranaki St was a large piece of work but showed little in new pipes.

Councillor Tim Brown, left, called out Wellington Water’s transparency, while Ben McNulty labelled a commitment to fix pipes as “hollow”.

However, the agenda did highlight how much piping was replaced in each council’s area. Wellington replaced 640 metres of pipes. Porirua replaced about the same amount with less than one third of the population. Hutt City replaced 9.3km, while Upper Hutt did 1.7km.

Wellington City councillor Ben McNulty said the figures, showing Wellington only replaced 1 metre more of pipes compared to the much smaller Porirua, showed the council’s “hollow commitment” to fixing the water crisis.

“The record investment in water from our long-term plan will be delivered by future councils, not this one. I imagine most Wellingtonians would’ve preferred we invested $160m in replacing pipes over restoring the Town Hall,” he said.

Councillor Tim Brown said the council relied on Wellington Water funding requests based on its priorities for capital funding. “If the fundable priorities don't extend as far as new pipes, such is life.”

The root issue was a “very low level of transparency” from Wellington Water, meaning councillors had “virtually no idea” where money was going. Ongoing water reforms should hopefully change that, he said.

Councillor Geordie Rogers said Wellington’s new wastewater plant at Moa Point was not included in the figures. The city’s higher density meant each metre of pipe replaced served more people, he said.

Allowing for more growth meant more people to pay for future pipe funding.

Councillor Ray Chung said the council’s talk of a record investment in pipes was for future councils and would probably not happen.

“We don’t walk the talk, but seem to be taken over by the PR machine,” he said.

Porirua mayor Anita Baker said her city had spent more on pipes each year for the past 20 years.

Wellington Water Board chairperson Nick Leggett said each council decided how it wanted to invest in water.

A statement from Wellington Water said its role was to “provide robust advice to councils, who make decisions on their investment”.

Whanau was approached for comment on Sunday.

* Correction: An earlier version of this story miscalculated the length of pipes replaced. Hutt City replaced 9.2km (not 92km), Wellington did 647m (not 6.4km), Upper Hutt did 1.7km (not 17km) and Porirua did 646m. (Amended May 26 2025 at 8.45am)