South Wairarapa and the region’s three other district councils have formally agreed to set up a joint water services “council-controlled organisation” to advance proposals for a Water Services Delivery Plan.
Tararua was the last brick in the water wall, approving its participation in the water project in mid-June.
This initial co-operation agreement by the four councils presages the next steps towards implementing central government’s Local Water Done Well (LWDW) law.
It signals that water infrastructure will be a key focus for the region over the next decade, with hundreds of millions of dollars needed to repair and upgrade systems which are close to failure.
It also signals the start of a race to September, when plans for the Wairarapa plus Tararua (“Wai + T”) CCO must be lodged with the Department of Internal Affairs for formal approval.
That approval in turn will trigger a multi-million dollar debt raise-and-spend process to keep water taps – and sewerage lines – flowing across the four districts.
Household water bills will become a part of the charging landscape from that point – a bill which is expected to be larger, likely to be paid monthly – and with costs of anything up to $5,000 (or more, with some estimates as high as $7,000 a year) involved. That cost will be on top of rates, which will be reduced as the new water payment system kicks in.
Tararua councillors had few doubts about the option they preferred. By an 8 – 1 vote (along with one abstension) they approved delegated authority for the council’s CEO to join the three other councils to “develop the Water Services Delivery Plan and to negotiate the key principles, terms and conditions of a Joint Wairarapa-Tararua Council-controlled Organisation with Masterton, Carterton and Wairarapa District Councils.”
The meeting also heard: “the Chief Executives of the four councils (already) had been working on a document to discuss with the four councils, setting out decisions needing to be made.”
