Greater Wellington Regional Council doesn't want to supply water

Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman Daran Ponter. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) says it's managing a "Chinese wall" and doesn't want to supply water anymore.

This morning council chairman Daran Ponter appeared before a select committee on the Water Services Entities Bill, which is part of the Government's Three Waters reforms.

He said GWRC was an anomaly because it was the only regional council in the country that provided water services.

"We don't want to do that anymore," he said.

Ponter said the council owned about half a billion dollars' worth of assets used to collect bulk water and supply it to metropolitan areas in the region.

He said the council instead wanted to have a more "pure" focus on its role as a regulator for the environment.

"It's a bugger being an environment protection agency and a water provider- having to continue to manage that Chinese wall between infrastructure and environmental control."

The Three Waters reforms provided an offramp for the council to move on, Ponter said.

The Government wants to create four new water entities, which will absorb the fresh, waste, and stormwater services of 67 councils.

"You're providing for a new regional entity and that really begs the question- why do you need a regional council gathering water and providing services within another regional entity?" Ponter said.

The regional council supported the principles of the Bill and the broad approach taken with the entities, he said.

GWRC's function about bulk water would either have to be passed to one of the new entities or dissolved altogether, he said.

The council was given the power to take water and supply it under the Wellington Regional Water Board Act 1972.

The Act acknowledged the need for an overarching body to provide water in metropolitan areas that didn't have a sufficient catchment to provide water for residents.

Ponter said the council has managed this tension with also being a regulator for a number of years, but it would be easier for the council to be firmly on one side of the fence.

"From a public perception perspective, they do not understand how you can be a consent applicant and the judge."

Ponter said in any future arrangement, water assets like the lakes should be separated from the land, which the council uses for conservation and recreation.