What's next for water?

Nationwide, there are big changes ahead for water services.

Many councils can no longer afford to keep building and managing costly waters infrastructure on their own. It is simply too expensive for their communities.

Councils are dealing with increased regulatory rules and costs from government, higher environmental protection standards, soaring infrastructure and insurance costs, and new investment needed to deal with growth and extreme weather.

It is very clear this work cannot be deferred anymore. Our country needs huge investment in waters infrastructure and successive governments have recognised this. In some places councils have reached the limit on how much they can borrow.

Critical waters infrastructure upgrades have been postponed to keep rates down.

Across New Zealand, all councils have been directed by government to consider how they can better, and more cost- effectively, provide waters services in the future.

All councils, including Hamilton City Council, are being asked to consider different ways to provide drinking water, and manage wastewater and stormwater. Councils are being strongly encouraged to join with neighbours to create scale and drive efficiencies so that, over time, cost increases are minimised.

As part of these changes, all councils must provide a Water Services Delivery Plan to the Government by September 2025. Those Plans must:

• prove water services in the future can be delivered in a way that meets all the rules
• support new housing and businesses
  be more affordable for ratepayers and the wider community.
• The Plans will help ensure that across the country, the right investments are being made at a price communities can afford.

In Hamilton, we need to ensure these changes deliver the best possible outcome for our community and our river. Before Hamilton City Council submits our Water Services Delivery Plan, we want your feedback. This section outlines two options we have considered and explains the option our Council thinks is best for our city.

Hamilton is now the fastest growing city in New Zealand. By 2050, we expect more than 260,000 people will live here, including many of our children and grandchildren.

We cannot ‘stop’ growth. By law, our Council must provide enough land, suitable for housing, for the next 30 years. That also means providing the right infrastructure (including waters infrastructure) to support our rapidly growing population.

Over the years, Hamilton City Council has consistently invested in the major waters infrastructure our city needs. We have a proven track record for meeting drinking water standards, and want to keep it that way. In the last few years we have built two new water reservoirs in Rototuna and

Ruakura, adding 36 million litres of storage to our drinking water network.

We have upgraded the city’s water and wastewater treatment stations. This work alone cost $56 million.

With government support, tens of millions of dollars in new wastewater pipes and pumping facilities have been built in Peacocke to cater for new growth.

We’ve dealt with localised flooding caused by extreme weather. Given climate change, we are anticipating more of these events in the future. We must be prepared.

But Hamilton’s rapid growth means we are still playing catch-up while maintaining the waters infrastructure we already have. Every year we deliver nearly 24 billion litres of drinking water to taps across the city and treat more than 21 billion litres of wastewater, costing around $150 million per year. Over the next decade, we have budgeted around $2.5 billion for new waters projects.

There are limits on how much money councils can borrow – similar to a credit card limit. Many councils, including Hamilton City Council are operating close to their limit. This could severely reduce our ability to respond to unplanned events like a natural disaster.

In Hamilton, we are better off than many other councils, but we face some very big challenges. They require a fundamental change to how we manage waters.