Water meter pilot pioneer, Debbie McLachlan. Photo/Tom Eley
Hamilton City Council has invited 200 Hamilton East households to take part in a water meter pilot that could reshape how the city manages water.
IAWAI – Flowing Waters, the new water services company jointly owned by Hamilton City Council and Waikato District Council, will run the trial.
Interim IAWAI executive chair Kevin Lavery said the trial would help residents understand their water use while preparing Hamilton to move away from charging based on capital value.
The pilot programme would begin in summer 2025 or early 2026.
“Water meters can change how people think about water,” Lavery said.
“We’ve seen costs fall by 25% to 35% where they’ve been introduced. That is a big benefit to the resident.”
Central government told councils to move away from charging households through property value rates, he said.
Hamilton needed real-world information before making any long-term decisions.
“Rather than having endless opinions from people who have never used water meters, we will have proper evidence,” he said.
“That is the only way to make good decisions for the city’s future.”
The pilot would track overall water consumption but would not collect data at the individual tap level.
Lavery said the project would also test Hamilton East’s older infrastructure, giving insight into the cost of retrofitting meters across the city.
The trial would include a small number of the city’s 4000 commercial properties, which already had water meters.
If successful, the council would extend the programme in 2026 to cover thousands more homes.
Hamilton has around 60,000 water users.
Lavery said the scale of the project required careful planning.
“It is a big task. The most recent equivalent would be the rollout of super-fast broadband,” he said.
Councillors approved $1.1 million for the pilot and related investigations in June.
Lavery said the Commerce Commission, which would regulate public water infrastructure, might require residential water meters in the future.
“While nothing will change overnight, the clock is ticking. We need solid information and robust research to make the right calls,” he said.
He also expected water meters could eventually become part of the city’s resource consent conditions for taking water from the Waikato River.
“The health of the awa is something all partners share a commitment to,” Lavery said.
Waikato-Tainui backed the idea as part of its environmental plan for protecting the river, he said.
While council leaders emphasised the need for evidence before committing to citywide changes, residents like Debbie McLachlan saw the pilot as an opportunity to understand their own water use better.
She signed up after seeing a post on social media.
McLachlan said the pilot trial felt like the right step.
“This is going to happen regardless, so I was interested in taking part.”
McLachlan said she wanted to see how her family of four used water.
“When you don’t have any information, it’s pretty easy to ignore.”
She expected baths for her two young sons and family laundry to use the most water.
But she was also curious whether access to data would change habits.
“I think you can try and cut back on things, and it doesn’t really feel like it makes much difference. Maybe this will show us if it does,” she said.
McLachlan had already seen water meters rolled out once before.
She grew up in Tauranga, which introduced them citywide in 1999 – the first council in New Zealand to do so.
“Most people were pretty upset about it at the time,” she said.
But she said Hamilton had enjoyed a “good free ride” and should be ready to adapt.
“It’s just progress, isn’t it?”
She also saw water meters as a fairer system.
“Water meters put responsibility for water use on individuals, rather than relying on people to do the right thing,” she said.
Lavery agreed. He said the pilot would help Hamilton gather evidence for one of the most significant infrastructure decisions in the city’s future.
“It’s a big change, but it’s about fairness, sustainability and protecting our awa for the next generation.”
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. He previously worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive.