Water Services Update

Published on 27 October 2023

The new government forming signals some changes for water services but exactly what those are is not yet clear. 

What do we know?

• Two of the parties likely to form a government are committed to repealing legislation that moves waters into new entities and instead keeping waters with councils.
• There are no proposals to scrap the drinking water and resource consent discharge standards that we are required to meet by law.
• There are no proposals to scrap the water regulator, Taumata Arowai, which has the power to fine councils who do not meet the water standards.
• Two of the parties likely to form the next government propose more government oversight and regulation of council water services.
• There are no proposals to put additional money in to help councils invest in meeting the standards for drinking water and wastewater – the expectation is that this comes from users / ratepayers.

What are we doing in the meantime?

In the meantime, Council will continue investing so that the water Waitaki receives is safe and meets the standards required by the water regulator. This way we ensure ratepayers money benefits our District and is not paid to government regulators in fines.

During the recent Cryptosporidium outbreak in Queenstown we could demonstrate that 91% of residents on our water supplies receive safe compliant water, due to our investments. We will be looking to the new government to help make sure we can reach these standards for everyone, but in a way that is affordable for our ratepayers.

Why are we incurring debt for this?

To fund the water infrastructure needed to meet the legal requirements, we had three choices:

1. Save up over a period of years and buy the infrastructure when we have the money. This could mean incurring fines for not meeting the standards and would likely mean some ratepayers paying for infrastructure now that they will never use or benefit from. It is also likely that deferring investment now would see the cost of infrastructure rise, increasing the total expenditure for the ratepayer.
2. Rate for it in the year when we make the investment – but water infrastructure costs millions of dollars and placing that in one year of rates would be unaffordable for ratepayers and lead to volatility in annual rates, dependent on infrastructure requirements.
3. Use debt funding and pay it down over the life of the infrastructure – this means we pay costs to borrow money, it also means the cost doesn’t all fall to today’s ratepayers but is shared with those ratepayers in the future who will also benefit from the investment in the water services. This approach makes it more affordable and is fairer.

Choosing not to upgrade and improve our water infrastructure is not a viable option, due to the legal requirements placed upon Waitaki District Council and its duties to provide safe, clean drinking water.