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April 18, 2023
Affordable Water plan meets council shortfall
Adam Gifford
Posted On April 18, 2023
Download AudioTe Taitokerau MP Kelvin Davis says the transformation of the Three Waters reform into the Affordable Water plan should allow the country to move ahead with fixing the pipes.
The original plan to create found large regional entities to oversee the modernisation of fresh water, waste water and storm water infrastructure has been modified to now become 10 entities, based largely on regional council areas, after many councils complained they would be denied a voice.
Mr Davis says the reform also got sidetracked by people focusing on ownership, which was not in the plan.
He says some councils felt the Government should just hand over the $180 billion needed over the next 30 years.
“Councils have had their opportunity and it hasn’t gone too well. You just have to look at all the notices of communities where they have to boil their water. You just have to look at the areas, and there’s a couple up here in the north where pipes have bene broken and the wai tikotiko has gone into our rivers and creeks where we get kaimoana and things like that,” Mr Davis says.
While the savings to ratepayers are less than under the original plan, the work would add thousands of dollars to rate bills if it were done through the status quo funding model.
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