Almost all councils on board for Waikato Water Done Well
Thursday, 26 June 2025
It’s being called the biggest decision in decades, and almost all of Waikato’s district councils have now decided on the future of water for their ratepayers.
And it all happened this week, with six of the seven councils party to Waikato Water Done Well (WWDW) negotiations making decisions on Government-mandated water reforms.
On Tuesday, Ōtorohanga and Hauraki District councils signed up to be part of the new WWDW organisation, which will be known as Waikato Water Ltd.
On Wednesday, three councils - South Waikato, Waipā, and Matamata-Piako, also voted to join.
Waitomo District Council is expected to make its final decision on joining WWDW on Monday next week, and Taupō’s council has hedged its bets by forming an in-house unit to manage its water while leaving its options open to join WWDW at a later date.
Also on Tuesday, the Thames-Coromandel District Council decided to go its own way, and will seek to join a joint Bay of Plenty water services organisation with Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council.
Hamilton City Council and Waikato District Council have signed their own agreement for a shared water services model to be known as IAWAI Flowing Waters.
Waipā District councillors took less than 10 minutes to make their decision - to join WWDW “in principle”, subject to hearings on submissions to its proposal - scheduled for next week.
Councillor Clare St Pierre said she was comfortable with the process so far but had concerns regarding how much information they had about the transition to the new organisation.
“I’m a bit disappointed we have not had enough time to understand that in detail … the urgency central government are cracking the whip on this … means there’s still a lot of uncertainty.”
Waipā chief executive, and WWDW working group chairperson, Steph O'Sullivan said it was the biggest change for local government since council amalgamations in 1989.
“We are doing some very deliberate and intentional change management thinking with some very qualified specialists so we can agree as seven councils what those change management principles look like … and we’re doing everything possible at the moment to make sure we are framing this up for success.”
South Waikato District councillors were joined by about 20 people in the public gallery on Wednesday when they voted 7-2 in favour of joining WWDW.
The two councillors opposed, Sandra Wallace and Kerry Purdy, said they were both disappointed by what they thought was poor public consultation and a lack of detailed financial information throughout the process.
“A lot of people don’t understand or even know what’s going on … I don’t believe as a district [council] that we have done our consultation well,” Wallace said.
Purdy said she was “thoroughly disappointed we got so few submissions for such an important decision”.
She was also concerned about possible job losses for staff, the loss of institutional knowledge, and said “financial assumptions are just assumptions”.
All councillors who spoke about water reforms said they were concerned about the short time frame they had to put the Government’s reforms into place.
Chief executive Susan Law said it was a “complex issue” and time frames were a major concern.
However, she said none of the submissions addressed the criteria for water service delivery as proposed by the government, directly.
“The financial modelling has been quality assured … on reasonable assumptions of what might happen in future.
“This decision is long term, it’s inter-generational and will impact our children and grand children … and I’m mindful of the import of the decision you will make.”
Councillor Hans Nelis said as elected representatives it was their duty to make decisions for the community and had “been unnerving for a lot of councillors to make this decision, not for now, but for our future”.
“I support our government - and as a nation we have to do something about our waters … this thing won’t go away.”