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The final piece of legislation for the Government’s revamped affordable water reforms was introduced to the House today.
The Water Services Amendment Bill changes the Water Services Entities Act 2022 to replace four water services entities with 10.
Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty says that means every council, and therefore every community, is represented on the entities’ regional groups.
Moving from 67 different water services providers to 10 means the new entities will still have the increased size necessary to improve access to funding and management of water services.
Other important changes in the Bill are a staggered and flexible approach to when the new entities go live, community priority statements to give a voice to local people with an interest in water bodies within the entity area and a process to enable voluntary mergers of the entities.
Mr McAnulty says the cost of fixing broken water infrastructure is estimated at $185 billion over the next 30 years.
Without these changes, New Zealanders would see unaffordable increases to their rates to fund the investment needed.
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