Infrastructure Commission head takes aim at Tiaki Wai’s water meter roll-out
Thursday, 18 June 2026
The Infrastructure Commission’s chairperson has taken a swipe at Wellington’s next water service provider, saying it could take a different approach from its estimated half a billion dollar roll-out of water meters.
Tiaki Wai has been set up under the Government’s Local Water Done Well reforms and will take over the delivery of water in the capital, Hutt Valley and Porirua next month.
It had been estimated by Tiaki Wai that providing water meters across the region may cost between $500 million and $590m, up from $144m in 2020 and $412m in late 2025.
In a select committee meeting this week, Infrastructure Commission chairperson Raveen Jaduram acknowledged the cost of metering in Wellington when talking about water services potentially competing against each other for the procurement of infrastructure.
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“Instead of, for example, Tiaki Wai saying they are going out to the market and its going to cost half a billion, if they said no, we are going to get someone else to provide metering as a service probably off balance sheet?
“That sort of thinking is what we need and that would drive down the cost.“
Jaduram said the cost estimates that had been done in water service delivery plans had assumed the new water services under the Government’s reforms were doing work independently, rather than creating scale.
Jaduram told The Post following the meeting that there were opportunities for the private sector to play a role in the delivery of metering as a service for a water entity ‒ similar to how a business might rent a building rather than owning it.
“This could remove the need for council entities to be involved in the monitoring and maintenance of meters, taking it off balance sheet.
“Given the operating environment, we would expect alternatives of this nature to be considered through robust business casing processes.”
He said water entities across the country were planning for infrastructure investment of $48 billion over the next decade.
“While it's critical that our water infrastructure is fit for purpose and that we catch up on necessary maintenance and renewals, we should expect that a cost of this scale to create affordability issues for water users.
“To give historic perspective, this investment is equivalent to all capital investment in water over the last 125 years.”
Jaduram said for that reason it would be important to find ways to stage and phase investment, or identify options to reduce cost.
Tiaki Wai responds
Tiaki Wai chief executive Michael Brewster told The Post that while the water service provider had published some “early indicative costs for water meters” it had not decided on the strategy, business case, implementation or budget for water metering.
Brewster said the Tiaki Wai board had asked for more work on costs and benefits as part of developing a business case.
“This will include consideration of contracting models for delivery, installation and operation of the meters and associated services. Future decisions will also be informed by a trial before any final decisions are made.”
He said the board was aware of the importance of every dollar and would be looking at options that provided value for money.
More generally, he said there was agreement with the Infrastructure Commission’s views on “the benefits working with others and we have already begun discussions with other new water organisations on a range of matters”.
The cost estimates for Tiaki Wai’s water meter project had stirred controversy in the region, with recent council candidate Guy Nunns appearing before a Wellington City Council committee saying it was a “rort”.
Nunns held up an analogue water meter he had purchased at Zip Plumbing for $131. He could have got a bluetooth-enabled one for $175. A plumber would install it for a further $120.
That is $251, or $296, versus up to $4000 per household.