Waipā signs on to work towards Waikato water entity

Waipā Mayor Susan O'Regan.

Waipā District Council is one of seven Waikato local bodies signed up for now to work towards creating a large water entity for the region.

Waikato District Council signed on this morning.

They will enter negotiations and begin work towards forming a new regional organisation to deliver water services - leaving just Matamata-Piako District Council, South Waikato District Council, and Hamilton City to formally decide their next steps.

Waipā Mayor Susan O’Regan said the Government had made it crystal clear the status quo – with individual councils managing three waters independently – was no longer viable.

Her council has opted into regional negotiations but was also doing an independent assessment to see if Waipā should continue to stand alone or join with others.

“We can either choose to collaborate with other councils, or we will compete with them for the same resource,” she said.

“That simply doesn’t make sense to me so I think we must seriously look at aggregation and the opportunities that will be offered to our district.”

Matamata-Piako District Council chief executive Don McLeod, who has led a cross-council workstream recommending a regional approach, is confident his council will be on board when they meet on September 25.

But he acknowledged that Hamilton City Council, which will decide on Thursday, will make its own decision and may “leave the tent”.

“Whatever call Hamilton makes to deal with its own, pressing issues we will respect that and get on with building a regional model,” McLeod said.

“We need to put a framework in place quickly to deliver better water infrastructure, faster and most cost-effectively for ratepayers. We simply must be a lot smarter in how we spend money. That’s what this is all about.”

Over the next 10 years, Waikato councils have budgeted nearly $5 billion for drinking water, stormwater and wastewater for capital works.

All up, including operating costs, water services will cost more than $7.5b.

A report commissioned by the Waikato Mayoral Forum said working together could see savings of $338 million over a decade, based on conservative efficiency targets of around 1% per year. Most savings come from combining capital planning works and delivery.

The report also put a spotlight on increasingly unaffordable water charges for households without major change.

McLeod said if Hamilton City Council did not join, there was still enough scale to change the game.

“With a large number of councils looking at potentially joining up, we’re talking about providing water services to a substantial population, more than 320,000, across a big piece of the region. With ongoing goodwill and long-term thinking from the councils involved, we will be able to make huge in-roads in addressing the massive challenges ahead,” he said.

“It will take time, of course, but the current system is fundamentally broken. There is no argument about that. This is a hugely important step towards substantive and I believe, positive change.”

Earlier this month, Waikato Regional Council asked to be part of the group and help design a regional model, despite drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater being largely a city or district council responsibility.

Its chairwoman Pamela Storey believed the regional council could make a good contribution.

“For example, we’re able to provide technical leadership around a catchment-based approach to consenting. There is opportunity in shared services, so we have quite a lot of technology that may be useful.”

Council chief executives keen on a regional entity will now negotiate a non-binding heads of agreement to be formally ratified by each participating council. That draft agreement would be back in front of councils by the end of October.