Manukau City Council has approved Manukau Water's price hike of 4.9 per cent for water and 9.38 per cent for wastewater from July 1.
Water now costs $1.99 a cubic metre and the wastewater fixed charge for homes is $350.
A perception that water was more expensive and must be conserved took
hold last year when the council set up Manukau Water to operate the city's $1 billion water and wastewater assets for 315,000 residents.
Mayor Barry Curtis says the company's water and wastewater revenue fell below that forecast because of cuts in volumes used by non-residential customers.
This was a reaction to Manukau Water's fixing its charges on a different basis to that used by the council before July 1 last year.
Manukau Water chief executive Raveen Jaduram says the increased wastewater charges have little to do with the proposal of Watercare Services, which supplies bulk water and operates the Mangere wastewater treatment plant, to increase its charges from July next year.
``It's more to do with the fact that we have earned less money than we should have because of the savings. Unfortunately...we [make] a loss when people conserve.'
- NZ Herald
