The second online Council workshop was held on Wednesday 1 September to review the Government’s proposed changes to the way water, waste water and storm water (collectively known as Three Waters) is delivered in New Zealand.

The Government has given Councils time during August/September to review and assess the Three Waters proposal and provide feedback by 1 October 2021.

We're not being asked to make a decision on the proposal by 1 October – the next four weeks will be spent gaining a full understanding of what impact the water reform will have on Council and our community. It will then be up to Government to assess the feedback and decide what the next steps are.

We’re participating in the reform process, but we are yet to make any decisions about the district's future involvement.

The workshop sessions covered -

• Meeting with the Mayors
• The issues of concern
• Influence and accountability

As we weigh up the pros and cons of the proposed reform your comments and questions are welcome. Sign up if you would like future updates sent directly to your inbox.

We had the opportunity to expand our thinking by speaking with the Mayors at New Plymouth District Council and Whanganui District Council.

New Plymouth and Whanganui are two of the 22 Entity B areas we’d join forces with under the proposed reform and this gave us a chance to learn about their developing views on the new model. Their focus has been about trying to reach an understanding on whether the -

• national case for change stacks up – i.e. is the current national delivery model broken or can the status quo work?
• regional case for change stacks up
• timeline is adequate
• impact of the new water regulator, Taumata Arowai, will be significant
• introduction of an economic regulator’s a wise step
• governance arrangements are fit for purpose
• boundaries (i.e. Entity B) are fit for purpose
• inclusion of storm water is a good idea
• consultation with mana whenua has been adequate
• ‘no worse off’ arrangements are adequate
• ‘better off’ arrangements are adequate i.e. the $2.5 billion financial package
• addition of an ombudsman or independent party to protect consumers is needed

 We will be revisiting a number of these aspects in future workshops.

We are facing challenges in the management and delivery of three waters but it’s unclear how big those challenges will be in the future. There’s already a lot of regulatory reform happening, over and above the proposed three waters model, and that will have an impact on our spending in future years. We know there will be change but we don’t know by how much or how quickly, but it’s likely we’ll have a very different capital programme over the next 10-20 years if we continue to manage three waters. At this stage though it’s hard to know what investment will be needed when there are so many unknowns.

We also started to look at the proposed boundaries. We’re used to working across boundaries. Currently we work jointly with our neighbouring Councils where we can deliver a service more efficiently and provide better value for money. Any joint arrangement we enter into needs to deliver benefit to our residents.

The proposed entity covers a large geographic area and the benefit of size will potentially create opportunities that we’d struggle to achieve by going it alone. However, we also want to look at what issues being part of something bigger creates, and whether a smaller grouping of Councils could achieve a better balance between cost savings, service levels and other local needs like keeping pace with growth.

Councils will remain the water asset owners under the new three waters model and while we will be able to appoint members to the Regional Representative Group of the new Entity we won’t have any direct influence over who sits on the Board.

As owners of the assets we will be reviewing what level of influence and accountability would be appropriate.

The three waters reform is being led by the Government. Councils currently have an opportunity to raise any issues/concerns on their communities’ behalves and we welcome the community to be part of the process.

If you have a question or comment you want us to consider please click here. All feedback will help inform our conversations with the Government.

• August to September 2021 - period for Council to raise issues/concerns and seek clarification with the Government
• 1 October 2021 - Our feedback to Government is due
• October 2021 – Government to consider the feedback  and decide how it will progress, including how and when councils will consult with their communities