Three Waters Reform

The New Zealand Government have indicated that between $120 billion and $185 billion needs to be invested over the next 30 years to meet drinking water and environmental standards and provide for future population growth.

The government believes that through reform, the costs for our households and communities over time will reduce substantially.

The government claims that separating New Zealand into four entities strikes the right balance between economies of scale and the needs and interests of local communities. The research supports this, indicating that entities that deliver services to at least 600,000 to 800,000 connections, can achieve significant efficiency gains. 

The reform would bring together the drinking water, stormwater and wastewater (three waters) services, currently delivered by 67 different councils across New Zealand, into four competency-based water services entities. These entities will remain firmly in public ownership (by the communities they serve). Reform would also improve transparency about the delivery and costs of these services and uphold the Crown's Treaty of Waitangi obligations to iwi/Māori.

The three waters reform programme sets out to improve the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders. It will improve the safety, quality, and environmental performance of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services in a way that is considerably more affordable per household than the current delivery structure. 

The proposed entities will be the owners of the assets, with the councils within owning the entity. The assets continue to belong to the public. 

No – it is proposed that iwi will have an equal share into how the entities are developed and how they are managed and operated, but are not owners of the assets.

A Regional Representative Group will set expectations for the entity and select an independent panel to appoint the board. The representative group will comprise a portion of local authority members and mana whenua. The board will govern the entity and appoint a Chief Executive who will manage the operations for the entity.

Initially, the way you pay for water you will continue to be same. Over time, the Entity may wish to make some changes the way water is paid for consistent across the entities area.

As an example, areas without water meters may have water meters installed so waters users can pay for the actual water they consume.

At this time, we are unsure what changes the Entity may want to bring that would alter how Waikato residents pay for water in the future.

The government has indicated than with reform, costs will be substantially lower over time. However, currently it is unlikely costs will be lower in the short term. A very large investment is needed to provide improved and sustainable three water services.

No. In fact, further safeguards against future privatisation are being developed through legislation, making it more difficult to privatise than it is now. Continued public ownership of three waters water services and infrastructure is a bottom line for the government. 

The reform programme includes new oversight and reporting provisions which will give communities more security about service levels than currently. This will include a regulator (Taumata Arowai) and an economic regulator who will set and review the implementation of new compliance standards. It is also proposed that a new Ombudsman be appointed.  The Ombudsman would handle complaints and investigate the administrative conduct of the water entities, including in relation to official information act inquiries. The ombudsman is completely independent of the water entity.  Each entity will be required to engage with communities in a meaningful and effective manner on key documents. The entities will be required to publish these, to report on how consumer and community feedback was incorporated into decision-making. Entities will also be required to set up a forum to assist with effective and meaningful engagement.

Under the government proposal, all staff who work primarily on water will be guaranteed a role at the new water service entities that retains key features of their current role, salary, location, leave and hours/days of work. A more customised approach is required for senior executives, other staff and contractors.

Late October 2021, Government announced they will be proceeding with reform and will introduce legislation to establish four publicly owned entities to manage the country’s water resources. On this basis, formal public consultation will not be occurring.

The latest Government information and releases is uploaded to the Department of Internal Affairs website here: https://www.dia.govt.nz/Three-Waters-Reform-Programme

WDC has a large number of assets within our three waters portfolio including:

Watermains lengths (kms):

Stormwater = 180.50km

Wastewater = 341.00km

Water supply = 826.10km

Total length of all watermains combined = 1347.60km

Pump stations:

Stormwater = 3

Wastewater = 96

Water supply = 14

Total pump stations = 113

Treatment plants:

Stormwater = not applicable

Wastewater = 9

Water supply = 7

Total treatment plants = 16

Our assets are extremely valuable and require a large amount of maintenance to keep them in good condition to deliver water services across the Waikato District. To replace all of the assets in our three waters network would cost an estimated $548 million.