Affordability is a major issue for Council as our water, wastewater and stormwaters services come under extraordinary pressure.

This will be a feature of tonight’s TV One news at 6pm.

Council has spent years getting its water treatment systems to meet drinking water standards, with Norsewood still to achieve the necessary water clarity.

We now must address the aging infrastructure, some of which has been in the ground since the early 1900’s and is at the end of its like.  Wastewater treatment is required to be improved under consent requirements, and under new freshwater (rivers) requirements and stormwater systems will need to cope with increasingly severe events and deal with it flowing into wastewater pipes.

There is some resilience in our systems, but much more is needed.  Small councils, like us, have multiple sites (seven), no economy of scale and it is too expensive and impractical to join these systems up.  It now seems a matter of time before water metering will be required for all households, so that we can prevent leaks and waste, and realise the importance of water.

About 35% of water is “lost” in Dannevirke, despite extensive work to find leaks.  For Tararua, Council was advised last Tuesday an initial estimate of $177m is required of capital investment over the next ten years.

So, this huge cost is not doable or affordable for ratepayers and it is a similar dilemma confronting many councils, as they also deal with strong growth in population. “Cutting the cloth” or “sweating the assets” to failure is not going to solve the problem and will result in non-compliance, higher costs to fix and legal issues just as confronting.

Council is working with the Manawatu-Whanganui Region’s councils to present a united position to the new Government as they develop their “Waters Done Right” policy.  However, it is clear, the funding source for waters can no longer be done solely by rates and the mostly industrial/commercial and rural meter fees.   This is both a national and local dilemma.