Delivering safe, affordable and reliable water services is an important part of what Council does. Making the right decisions for how we manage this for the future matters.
Water affordability
Council is mindful of affordability of water services under any proposed new solutions and is actively working with the relevant government departments and potential local partners. This is a vital consideration in our decision-making.
Watercare contract
The Watercare operations and maintenance contract will remain in place until 30 June 2028.
This allows us more time to transition smoothly to the new model and removes the need for us to find an interim solution.
We signed a joint Council-Controlled Organisation (CCO) with Hamilton City Council in May. The CCO was named IAWAI - Flowing Waters in June.
We are required to present a Water Services Delivery Plan to central government by September 2025.
An asset-owning CCO would own all of the water and wastewater assets that are currently owned by the Council. This would give the CCO greater power (and responsibility) to manage the operation, maintenance and regular replacement of network components that have worn out over time. An asset-owning CCO would also be responsible for setting fair charges for the services that they provide, and in the case of water and wastewater, this will be subject to checking by the NZ Commerce Commission.
There is no new government funding available to assist us with the Local Water Done Well changes, but we are able to use some remaining funds from the previous water reforms process.
However, one new factor is that the Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) will now be able to lend significantly more money to new Water CCOs, and this might help us to spread the debt for new projects over longer timeframes.
We can change operations over to the new model whenever we like. The government requirement is that our model is financially sustainable by September 2028.
Stormwater is categorised differently from drinking water and wastewater. This is largely because stormwater can't be charged volumetrically, so it's harder to set a user charge rather than a rate.
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Last updated 24 July 2025, 03:42 pm
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