Planning is forging ahead for a new water services model to cover 10 southern North Island local bodies – from Horowhenua to Masterton – to deliver three waters services – but only if the councils agree to go ahead.
They have little time to decide as central government legally requires decisions to be made in the next 12 months.
Dame Kerry Prendergast, whose advisory group oversaw the report prepared by Scott Consulting, warns there are “no quick fixes,” with up to $17 billion of water infrastructure investment needed over the next 20-25 years.
Not investing means risking significant network failures, being unable to build the 99,000 new homes needed in the region, wastewater treatment and drinking water supplies “compromised. And we push this issue onto future generations.” she said, but didn’t add: “as has happened till now.”
So how did all this begin? The nine councils within the Wellington regional area and Horowhenua District signed a Memorandum of Understanding in May 2024 to work together on a joint water services delivery plan process. Hence the “Recommended regional approach to a joint Water Services Delivery Plan and delivery model” report. (Link at end).
The recommended new delivery model is for a joint council-owned regional water services utility vested with ownership of all regional water assets, revenues and liabilities, a WSCCO – Water Services Council Controlled Organisation.
The report notes the need for speed: “councils will need to make some difficult choices about how to fund and deliver the urgent work needed on the three waters network and demonstrate financial sustainability by 30 June 2028,” under central government’s planned system.
The initial set-up cost to ratepayers for WSCCO from the 10 bodies: “$75m to more than $125m.”
The report says so-called financial sustainability for the WSCCO “is based on increased debt and pricing to enable an investment programme that will ‘keep up’ with network maintenance, ‘catch up’ on the backlog of worn-out infrastructure, ‘build up’ network capacity to enable growth and ‘clean up’ wastewater and stormwater to improve discharge standards by upgrading assets as they are replaced at end-of-life.
“It is estimated that it will take about 20-25 years to replace worn-out parts of the network and ensure substantial environmental compliance.”
Wellington Water Ltd’s performance is not well reviewed in the report, which also warns communities to stand by for the coming water pricing upsurge.
While people across the region currently pay different prices for their water, the report recommends locking that system in place for three years “to help ensure that consumers do not receive a major price shock.” It adds no comment on what could happen next, but notes:
“Water prices must be based on the cost to provide services to the customers.”
The report compiles a list of critical risks arising from the infrastructure deficit across the region, which include: significant network failure; network fault “runaway;” constraints on growth and housing development; network redundancy and resilience; climate change; wastewater; stormwater.
Outlining one of these critical risks – constraints to growth and housing – the report notes: “funding and capacity for three waters infrastructure is a key constraint for greenfield and brownfield development and is already stopping some development occurring. An estimated additional 200,000 residents will live in the Wellington Region and Horowhenua by 2053, requiring about 99,000 new homes.”
It also outlines key issues facing each district, noting for South Wairarapa District Council:
- An ageing network results in asset failure and requires an increase in renewals;
- The speed of population growth is ahead of current water infrastructure capacity;
- Emissions from three waters are not reducing;
- Lack of redundancy in critical systems to provide safe drinking water in accordance with the Water Services Act;
- Poor condition of assets compromising water system and wastewater resiliency;
- Inability to comply with resource consents;
- Treatment plants lack multi-barrier protection and have significant operational and seismic resilience challenges;
- Streams and rivers contain coliforms;
- Flooding;
- No new wastewater connections are available in Martinborough or Greytown.
On the issue of systems capacity causing growth constraints, it said:
- Featherston (is a) “priority development area with potable water, wastewater and stormwater issues.
- Martinborough (has) “significant performance and compliance issues (which) resulted in GWRC issuing an abatement notice for the Martinborough Wastewater Treatment Plant in August 2022. The plant has also reached its design capacity as population growth and annual connections have far exceeded expectations. SWDC is no longer issuing building consents that need new wastewater connections.
- Greytown: “In June 2024, Wellington Water Ltd advised SWDC that there was not enough capacity at the Greytown Wastewater Treatment Plant to allow development of a proposed 200 lot subdivision or sufficient capacity for new connections to the wastewater network in Greytown. The plant was designed to service 2,200 connections and is currently servicing 2,700 connections.
It also noted SWDC’s planned kilometers of water pipe replacement level for 2024-25;
- Planned pipe replacement 2024/25 (km) = 0.472;
- Total meters of pipe in network (km) = 209;
- Years to replace pipe network at 2024/25 rate = 442.
Prendergast ends on a positive note:
“Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi – With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive.”
Full report:
“Recommended regional approach to a joint Water Services Delivery Plan and delivery model October 2024.” https://storage.googleapis.com/pcc-wagtail-media/documents/WRWSDP_Regional_Report_041024.pdf
