Opinion: New charge seen as 'practical investment tool'

Most of us turn the tap on and flush our toilets without a thought of where the water comes from. Photo / David Haxton

Weekly column by Kāpiti Mayor K. Gurunathan.

Ko au te awa, Ko te awa ko au.
I am the river, the river is me.
One key problem the Government's Three Waters reform poses is the multimillion-dollar loss of assets owned by generations of ratepayers to a few large regional entities. While a passionate debate revolves around the alienation of these physical assets, there is a deeper environmental alienation that is not being recognised. This is the alienation of our biological, cultural, and social relationship with our sources of water and the environmental catchment and its biodiversity. This eco-network includes the visible streams and rivers, and the unseen network of underground water that feeds the rivers and aquifers.

To this, we need to add the network of water reticulation including our water treatment plants and pumps that "deliver" the river into our homes for our drinking, ablution, wastewater etc. Thus delivered water supports the economy. In short, it supports life. The Waikanae River alone supports 41,000 people.

Most of us turn the tap on and flush our toilets without a thought of where the water comes from or any appreciation of the natural catchment and biodiversity that supports this supply.

Earlier this month I requested council management to explore the creation of a tool that, for the present purpose, can be defined as Blue Charge. In a nutshell, the proposal is for the council to use its demand management strategy, underpinned by water meters and volumetric pricing, to introduce an additional, separate charge per cubic metre of water consumed.

This should be explored as part of the community's next long-term plan. The aim is to firstly use the income stream to regenerate and restore the eco-network of the river system and/or the catchment that sustains the visible river and its underground network that feeds the river and aquifers.

This directly relates to the information given by council staff to the Controller & Auditor General's Office where the office audited the demand management of four councils including the KCDC. The 18 September 2018 report, called Managing the Supply of and Demand for Drinking Water, notes the intention of KCDC staff: "They are also considering how to extend their activities to improve the natural environment around water sources and reduce the carbon footprint for supplying drinking water."

Given that the drinking-water activity is a closed account, any investment to improve "the natural environment around water sources" has to be from within the water account. Currently, such environmental work is being funded separately from budgets managed by the council's parks and reserves department.

But in correcting this, there is a need to directly link and connect the consumer of the water to the health and sustainability of the source that supplies the water. This focuses on the second aim of the Blue Charge. It's an educational tool for environmental responsibility using the pricing mechanism to establish a personal and community monetary investment in the ecological health of the water source. The more you use, the higher this investment. This approach, I believe, rests on foundational Māori concepts on sustainable relationships with the environment.

The AG's report in outlining why the audit was done says that it "makes sense to ensure that suppliers are effective managing the water resources already under their control", and taking a strategic approach included avoiding "negative effects on aquatic resources and provide greater protection of ecosystems and respect the cultural significance of water bodies to Māori".

Such a Blue Charge is a practical investment tool to fulfil our responsibilities under the NPS on Freshwater Management 2020 and the NES for Freshwater 2020. Council has stated that at the core of this legislative framework is the concept of Te Mana o te Wai, which refers to the vital importance of water for sustaining life. It establishes a hierarchy that prioritises the health and the wellbeing of water first, then the health need of people, followed by the ability of communities to provide for the social, economic and cultural wellbeing.

These are legally binding responsibilities that also frame our proposed approach towards a sustainable growth strategy called Te Tupu Pai Growing Well: our proposed approach for enabling sustainable growth in Kapiti.

Page 26 of this document observes: "Urban growth can have impacts on the supply and quality of freshwater. When considering how and where growth happens, we will need to ensure the district grows in a manner that prioritises the health of freshwater.

On page 25 the document notes "We can put environmental protection at the heart of decision-making. Plan and design for better relationship with our natural environment and lower environmental impacts of new development."

The introduction of a Blue Charge will help us meet this environmental and cultural aspiration. This is a conversation the community needs to have through the next long- term plan.