A report from 2020 said demand for water could outstrip supply by 2026. Photo / 123rf
OPINION
Wellington is running out of water and the collective failure of councils to do anything about it could result in people having to boil their drinking water this summer.
Wellington Water manages water on behalf of several local councils which retain ownership of the assets.
The water company issued a press release on Friday, warning that water use in the metropolitan region is at an all-time high, mainly because of water loss from leaks and high use by residents.
It said severe restrictions were only avoided this past summer because the region had more rainfall than usual due to Cyclone Gabrielle.
An attached report said this summer could bring an acute water shortage.
“Sections of the network may depressurise as reservoir levels drop, creating a risk of contamination in the network that would result in councils having to issue boil water notices to keep the public safe,” the report said.
This is a confronting reality, yet it is not the first time Wellington’s leaders have been warned about the looming shortage.
In fact, they have been repetitively warned over several years and have failed to address it.
In 2020, the Herald revealed demand for water in Wellington could outstrip supply by 2026.
The Wellington Water report said an initial 10 per cent reduction in demand was required over the following six years to offset population growth. This would buy time and defer what was then estimated to be a more than $250 million investment in a new water source.
But the report said this would be challenging.
“However, with limited information about where and how water is being used, the need for customer behaviour change that we can only attempt to influence and cannot control, and the relatively short timeframe, means that achieving the targeted savings will be challenging.”
A move to universal water meters could however reduce residential demand by up to 20 per cent, the report said.
This is because meters help to detect leaks in the network.
Current estimates are that the Wellington region is losing more than 40 per cent of its drinking water supply through leaks in the public network and on private properties.
The Kāpiti Coast District Council introduced meters in 2014 and, within 18 months, peak day consumption decreased by about 26 per cent.
In that same time period, 443 leaks were found and 97 per cent of them were fixed.
Spurred by the threat of demand outstripping supply by 2026, the Greater Wellington Regional Council commissioned an investigation into water meters across the region.
The economic case for meters was received by the Wellington Water Committee in November 2020.
Committee members directed Wellington Water to prepare a more detailed business case for residential meters, which was expected to include more information about volumetric charging.
But things appeared to have stalled since then.
This week Wellington Water said work on the indicative business case was “progressing” and was expected to be completed by June 2024.
It’s understood the Hutt City Council and the Porirua City Council have set aside funding for water meters in their Long-Term Plans but the Wellington City Council and the Upper Hutt City Council have not.
Water meters are an inherently divisive subject because of privatisation fears, volumetric charging, and the issue of equity.
Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy has said building more bulk water storage should be the priority after more than a decade of procrastination on the subject.
Wellington City Council Councillor Iona Pannett has previously acknowledged the environmental benefits of meters but warned they were a “route to privatisation”.
“I will die in a ditch on this one,” she told a council meeting.
In 2021, Wellington Water launched a campaign to encourage people to conserve water.
A series of brightly coloured retro eighties illustrations encouraged people to “shower for as long as an eight-minute song”, for example.
That summer late-season rainfall, as with the following year due to Cylone Gabrielle, the need for more serious water restrictions was averted.
“We cannot assume this will be the case in future summers,” Wellington Water said.
Wellington Water chairman Campbell Barry, who has held the position since May 2021, said there has been no unity in the region on how to deal with the water shortage issue.
“This has been avoided really over the last couple of years and we’ve got away with it because simply we had more rainfall than expected.”
Barry said the biggest barrier to dealing with the problem was the political nature of water meters and the fear of being booted out of office.
Wellington’s metropolitan councils have agreed to hold a summit to get across the issue and find a position on water meters and an additional water source, Barry said.
“We need to make sure that as elected members across our councils, we understand the seriousness of this issue if we continue to do nothing... and I hope from that we will be able to move forward with a plan.”
Barry expected the water shortage would be an immediate priority for the new water entity that will take over the management of the region’s water under the Government’s reforms.
He said councils could either continue to kick the can down the road or show a bit of leadership and save the region one to three years of pain by getting the ball rolling now.
Wellington Water drinking water chief advisor Laurence Edwards said the company’s role was to provide advice to its client councils, and it was up to the councils to consider that advice and make decisions on what to invest in.
“Work is continuing on the indicative business case for smart residential water meters. A lot of planning and conceptual work is also ongoing for the new water source,” Edwards said.
“The work in progress for both is important to inform council funding decisions as well as future funding and investment decisions for the new water services entity proposed through the Government’s water reform programme.”
As councils once again turn to their Long-Term Plans, Edwards said Wellington Water’s advice also included interventions to prevent water loss, such as increased network renewals and planned maintenance.
Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
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