Water meters: Whitianga home owners to be charged for water use depending on volume used

Whitianga residential properties are about to be charged for the water they use.

Whitianga residential properties are about to go live with water meters with ratepayers now subject to user-pays charges.

Thames-Coromandel District Council confirmed water meters had been installed on almost all properties in Whitianga and that set charges will change from July 1 when property owners will be billed for water depending on the volume they use.

Funding of $4.8 million was received by the council from the Department of Internal Affairs to install the meters on the Whitianga and Whangamatā water supply systems and endorsed by the council at its last meeting of the year in 2020.

From July 1, Whitianga property owners would have two water charges instead of the current one.

The set charge that property owners pay for their water supply would drop by almost 50 per cent.

In addition, after July 1, property owners would be charged for water depending on the volume they use.

The set charge for 2023/24 is $803.90.

A Thames-Coromandel District Council spokesperson confirmed the drop as a “bit less than 50 per cent, depending on what is set in the Long-Term Plan (LTP) process currently under way”.

Council infrastructure group manager Mo Imtiaz said water metering had proven to be a valuable tool for tracking water loss, and accurately measuring water volumes reaching consumer properties.

“We can make savings through locating major leaks, knowing who our biggest water users are, and working with them to look at ways to better manage and conserve water.”

The name of the set charge on rates notices would change from the current Whitianga Water Serviced to Whitianga Water Serviced/Metered.

The rate would cover the maintenance and upkeep of water supply infrastructure and the operation of the local water treatment plant.

Property owners would be charged from July 1 for the amount of water they used, at a rate proposed in the draft LTP of $1.62/cubic metre (1000 litres).

If no water was used, there would be no water consumption charge.

A separate rate notice for the volumetric charge would be issued to ratepayers twice yearly, in April and November.

Due to various site issues, not all properties had water meters installed, most of them were sites that were a bit more complex due to unbundling work required, the spokesperson said.

Unbundling meant separating the water connections where one connection was shared for multiple properties and unbundling work normally required more time due to the complexity.

A project had been submitted in the 2024-34 draft LTP for water metering unbundling and if approved, it would be scheduled from 2027/28 to 2030/31.

In the meantime, those properties would continue to be charged the full water serviced set charge ($803.90 in the 2023/24 year).

Coromandel township, Pauanui, Thames townships and commercial properties in Whitianga are already metered.