Aucklanders are set to pay almost 10 per cent more on their water bills from today amid concerns prices could rise even faster if extreme weather causes more damage to Watercare’s pipes and infrastructure.
The cost comes as the city’s residents are facing being hit even harder in the pocket after the end of the fuel discount policy, and rising public transport costs for many.
The city’s drinking and wastewater supplier has already used its long-term asset plan to forecast it will increase water charges by 9.5 per cent every year through to 2029.
That is estimated to cost a household with average water usage an extra $114 in the coming year.
However, Watercare - which funds its operations through water charges - now faces an additional bill ranging anywhere from $100 million up to $460m to fix landslip and flood-damaged infrastructure.
And Watercare’s chief operations officer Mark Bourne says extreme weather is likely the new normal.
“Goldilocks doesn’t live here anymore,” he said.
“There’s no such thing as just right, it’ll either be too much [water] or too little, and we have to be adaptive to that.”
Watercare’s increased charges add to a raft of new expenses that will hit Aucklanders from today.
Families already reeling under dramatic interest rate, rental and food price rises now also face big jumps in petrol and public transport costs, among other new expenses.
Watercare similarly faces pressure to keep the costs of its services down for customers, but there are a number of uncertainties about whether it can due to climate change and Government reform.
Those uncertainties also include the sheer scale of its building programme - all of which is ultimately funded by Aucklanders paying their water bills.
The drinking and wastewater supplier plans to spend $1 billion this year and $13b in the coming decade to build, improve and maintain its pipe network, treatment plants and reservoirs as it strives to keep up with Auckland’s growing population and industrial needs.
Among the projects are a new 45-million-litre Manukau storage reservoir and 14.7km tunnel being dug up to 110m underground at a cost of $1.2b.
At 4.5m in diameter, the central interceptor tunnel will hold up to 226 million litres of waste and stormwater and help reduce flooding in central Auckland by transporting water to the Māngere treatment plant.
The challenge of meeting these building and maintenance costs meant Watercare almost raised Aucklanders’ water bills by 10.7 per cent this year.
It was only able to stick to its forecast 9.5 per cent increase by finding efficiencies, such as reducing its full-time staff by almost 60, the Auckland Council-controlled group said in March.
In addition, there are potential future changes looming that could also affect how much Aucklanders pay in water bills.
If the Government wins October’s general election, it plans to implement its Affordable Water Reform, formerly known as Three Waters.
Under the reform, Watercare will be taken from under Auckland Council’s umbrella and become the foundation for a new, independent water organisation that is responsible for all of Auckland and Northland.
The new body is planned to begin operating from July 1 next year.
The Government argues its reforms will provide better services at cheaper prices because it will allow new water groups across New Zealand to plan and invest in infrastructure at a greater scale.
Opposition parties National and Act have promised to repeal the reform, arguing it will mean local councils and residents lose their ability to have a say in how their water services are delivered and managed.
For Aucklanders, it is unclear whether the new organisation will stick with Watercare’s plans to increase water charges by 9.5 per cent each year and whether the need to also supply services to Northland could affect that or not.
In addition, the new water body will have more responsibilities - and costs - because it will be required to also take over management of stormwater systems.
Currently, Watercare only manages drinking and wastewater supply, while a department of Auckland Council called Healthy Waters separately manages stormwater runoff and is funded by the council’s budget.
Under the reform, the two separate teams will need to be joined into one and paid for with water charges.
And changes to Auckland’s stormwater systems loom as among the most important and potentially costly in coming years.
Blockages in streams and the stormwater system are blamed for exacerbating flooding damage during January, February and May’s extreme weather in Auckland, in which thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes due to landslips and surging water.
The new body will consequently be tasked with taking control of Auckland’s thousands of kilometres of streams and keeping them flowing.
And with parks planned to become important catchments for stormwater runoff during floods, there are questions about whether the new body will also take over ownership or management of some parks from Auckland Council.
However, even if the Government loses the upcoming election and the water reforms aren’t passed, Watercare still faces a big bill because of the floods.
In a report to its board, it said repairs could total between $250m and $460m after almost 200 pipes and assets were broken or damaged.
Speaking with the Herald this week, Suzanne Lucas - the assets upgrades and renewals general manager - said Watercare’s team is not yet sure how much of the bill will be covered by insurance and how much paid by water users.
Watercare’s chief operations officer Bourne said that after Auckland had been in a drought and short of water in recent years, the huge turnaround and scale of downpours this year was unprecedented.
He said a rain gauge in the Waitakere Ranges in Auckland’s west has been measuring rainfall over the past 120 years.
“And this year is off the chart quite frankly, there’s nothing like it,” he said.
His team had mobilised in an operations room at Watercare’s offices from early on Friday, January 27, as Auckland began to be beset by floodwaters.
Posting all known faults and damages on the operation room’s walls as they happened, his team thought their response was under control by 1.30am on Saturday when they went home, Bourne said.
Then just before 4am, he got a call.
A landslide had taken out a 40m section of water main pipe on Scenic Dr and 10,000 people in West Auckland were without water just “like that”, he said with a click of his fingers.
That was the first major incident - but others included 10 pumping stations being flooded, and Watercare being forced to halve the capacity of its Huia water treatment plant due to its western dam waters turning muddy brown as they were filled with dirt from huge landslips.
Getting trucks with water tankers into areas without drinking water and making sure broken pipes were bypassed so water didn’t spill out were among the urgent responses.
Bourne pointed to repairs of the Wairau Pump Station in Auckland’s North Shore, adjacent to where a Pak’nSave was flooded as an example of the next wave of repairs.
Two of the station’s pumps were destroyed after being inundated.
Replacement pumps aren’t manufactured in New Zealand, yet Watercare’s team had to “beg and steal” looking for pumps within the country and managed to find spare ones in New Plymouth and the South Island, getting the station back up and running in under a week, Bourne said.
“I don’t know how our guys did it.”
He said Watercare had now moved beyond the urgent and temporary repairs stage to assessing whether damaged assets could be repaired or would need to be built back in a better way.
For Aucklanders, meanwhile, Watercare’s increased charges are just one among a swathe of costs hitting them from today.
That includes a 7.7 per cent jump in household rates bills.
For the average household, that means rates will rise from $3306 to $3560.
The biggest hit to New Zealanders’ back pockets, however, is probably the end of the fuel tax discount, adding 25c a litre and almost 4c extra GST. The subsidy for road user charges for diesel vehicles also ends.
Half-price public transport fares are stopping for most, with only children under 13 riding for free, while half-price fares for community services card holders and people under 25 will remain.
Other changes made by the Government beginning today include a total ban on plastic straws, parental leave payment increases and new rules on child support benefits.
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