Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today / Opinion

Talking Point: The Government should give councils a three-year Three Waters trial

By Pauline Doyle
Hawkes Bay Today·
11 Oct, 2022 09:17 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Would a three-year Three Waters trial for councils be a way to appease them about the reforms? Photo / NZME

Would a three-year Three Waters trial for councils be a way to appease them about the reforms? Photo / NZME

Opinion

OPINION:

It's six years since the Havelock North gastro outbreak, and Hawke's Bay councils have not been sitting on their hands waiting for central government to tell the region what to do.

Since 2017, the councils have been collaborating to ensure they provide safe drinking water, with each council retaining ownership of water assets and sharing their institutional knowledge.

Napier's bores have been upgraded, bore heads have been raised above ground, and protection zones operate around each bore.

Two new bores have been drilled to replace the bores that released discoloured water as a result of the chlorine oxidising with some of the minerals in the water.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Land has been bought for new reservoirs. A leak detection programme started in 2020 should be completed by the end of 2022, providing accurate data to determine what parts of the reticulation network need to be replaced.

Pauline Doyle of Guardians of the Aquifer. Photo / NZME
Pauline Doyle of Guardians of the Aquifer. Photo / NZME

Unlike Wellington, Napier's network is not decrepit.

In 2019, the Department of Internal Affairs saw Hawke's Bay as a potential Three Waters model for other regions, but the Government has dismissed this option.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In a reaction to the Havelock North gastro outbreak, many councils started to chlorinate their town supplies, introducing a new - and in my opinion, overly sensitive - E. coli testing regime.

Previously, council only took action for E. coli counts above 10 "colony forming units" per 100 millilitires. But after Havelock North, anything above zero required action.

In Napier, positive E. coli results were consistently "on the edge of detection" and the CEO ordered permanent chlorination of the city's water supply.

Yes, we definitely need a new Water Regulator, but they need to use a credible E. coli water-testing regime.

The problem in August 2016 was that Hastings District Council ignored repeated requests by the local Drinking Water Assessors to raise bore heads above ground after the 1998 outbreak in Havelock North.

In 2013, former mayor Lawrence Yule challenged the need for water upgrades.

But since the 2017 change of mayor and CEO, the council is now on target with its comprehensive upgrades.

The Government now faces a new army of increasingly uncooperative mayors.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The new mayor of Dunedin believes that the infrastructure put in the ground should belong to the people above it.

However, the Water Services Entities bill blurs the edges around ownership of water assets, claiming that, as so-called shareholders, "councils will own the entities on behalf of their communities".

If you own assets you can borrow against them to raise loans. But the bill requires all councils to hand over their water assets so the new "water entities" can borrow the estimated $185 billion to fund their work.

Local councils will no longer have the ability to borrow against their water assets because ownership will have been transferred to another "owner".

Who will own the water assets under the Three Waters reforms? Not your local council.

The Water Services Entities bill is set to be pushed through Parliament before Christmas, with the water entities to begin operations in July 2024.

But there's an election before then, and National and ACT have both promised full repeal.

The Green Party's Eugenie Sage says the Government should pause until it can get a consensus.

Perhaps it's time for a three-year trial of councils' current water services, with the new Water Regulator ensuring they fully comply with the NZ Drinking Water Standards.

A "Three Waters" Advisery and Capital Works Funding Agency to support local councils who are struggling would be a bonus.

Such action would demonstrate that this Government is listening.

Three Waters reforms are a trainwreck. Time to step on the brakes.

* Pauline Doyle is a spokesperson for Guardians of the Aquifer, a lobby group advocating for safe chlorine-free water in Hawke's Bay.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Why Hawke's Bay households will pay more for water by 2026

09 Jun 02:22 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Napier man named as Canterbury river victim

09 Jun 12:36 AM
Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

2.2 million gone: Sheep numbers almost half what they once were in Hawke's Bay

08 Jun 06:00 PM

Why Cambridge is the new home of future-focused design

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Why Hawke's Bay households will pay more for water by 2026

Why Hawke's Bay households will pay more for water by 2026

09 Jun 02:22 AM

Separate water bills will replace current rates bills.

Napier man named as Canterbury river victim

Napier man named as Canterbury river victim

09 Jun 12:36 AM
Premium
2.2 million gone: Sheep numbers almost half what they once were in Hawke's Bay

2.2 million gone: Sheep numbers almost half what they once were in Hawke's Bay

08 Jun 06:00 PM
Catherine Wedd: Govt invests in learning support, promises aid for students in need

Catherine Wedd: Govt invests in learning support, promises aid for students in need

08 Jun 05:00 PM
Clean water fuelling Pacific futures
sponsored

Clean water fuelling Pacific futures

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP