Key Proposal 1: Investing in our three waters network
How much should we spend on fixing the pipes?
Our water pipes are old and in poor condition. We’re proposing to spend more than ever before on fixing them. This is expensive and will increase rates and debt, so we need to decide how much we can afford.
There are three options:
- Operational funding of $615.1m and Capital funding of $896.7m over 10 years. This is the baseline level of funding for the main nine capital projects outlined in the consultation document and unavoidable operating cost increases.
- Operational Funding of $617.5m and Capital funding of $1.0b over 10 years. This is the same as Option A, with additional operational funding for a business case for water meters and capital expenditure for installation provisionally budgeted for from Year 4.
- Operational funding of $676.7m and Capital funding $1.2b over 10 years. This option has the same projects as Options A and B, with additional operational funding for the drinking water network and capital funding for the wastewater network. (Preferred option.)
Read Key Proposal 1: Investing in our three waters network.
How much should we spend on fixing the pipes?
Our water pipes are old and in poor condition. We’re proposing to spend more than ever before on fixing them. This is expensive and will increase rates and debt, so we need to decide how much we can afford.
There are three options:
- Operational funding of $615.1m and Capital funding of $896.7m over 10 years. This is the baseline level of funding for the main nine capital projects outlined in the consultation document and unavoidable operating cost increases.
- Operational Funding of $617.5m and Capital funding of $1.0b over 10 years. This is the same as Option A, with additional operational funding for a business case for water meters and capital expenditure for installation provisionally budgeted for from Year 4.
- Operational funding of $676.7m and Capital funding $1.2b over 10 years. This option has the same projects as Options A and B, with additional operational funding for the drinking water network and capital funding for the wastewater network. (Preferred option.)
Read Key Proposal 1: Investing in our three waters network.
Check the other questions below - your question may already have an answer.
Please be concise and respectful in asking questions - we will do our best to respond promptly (usually by two working days). Some answers may take a bit longer to get the details right. We monitor the site from 8:30am - 5pm Monday to Friday
Note: The question box is to enable us to provide any additional information to you to better inform your submission. We are unable to count any comment submitted in the questions box as a final submission.
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What is WCC doing in regards to the independent report and recommendations commissioned by WCC in Jan 2024 on Wellington Water Ltd (WWL) operational performance? Particularly the Key finding in the report relating to WWL - that: 1. Maintenance costs had increased by 71% over the last three years. 2. The level of reporting from WWL was not sufficient for a water utility of its size. 3. Efficiencies could be found if there was more focus placed on performance measures and cost targets. 4. Their is suboptimal contract management between WWL and its contractors, 5. Their is failure to ensure the performance and financial risk is proportionately shared between Wellington City Council, WWL and contractors, 6. the WWL reporting to the WCC fails to accurately capture and link network performance to the physical work programme and associated budgets. Report findings at https://wellington.govt.nz/news-and-events/news-and-information/our-wellington/2024/02/wellington-water-report-and-recommendations
Karl M asked 8 days agoKia ora Karl M,
Thank you for your question and your interest in the Long-term Plan.
The answer from the Water team is below:
The shareholding councils of Wellington Water Ltd (WWL) shared our collective priorities and expectations towards delivering value for money for our ratepayers with our Letter of Expectations informing the WWL Statement of Intent (SOI) for 2024-2026.
Specifically, we expect WWL to:
Improve efficiency and effectiveness, transparency, and oversight by working with shareholders to produce a single framework that encompasses a reporting and performance management, including indicators that provide confidence that WWL is delivering value for money
Ngā mihi
The Long-term Plan Engagement Team
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How much will the meters cost to install? How much revenue do you expect to get from these? What is the profit?
Suzy niks asked 8 days agoKia ora Suzy,
Thank you for your question and your interest in the Long-term Plan.
The answer from the Water team is below:
Subject to the outcome of the LTP consultation, it is intended that a regional business case be prepared within the 2024/25 financial year by Wellington Water Ltd. Through this process, they will investigate any methods of implementation for water meters and identify potential benefits. This planning will inform any next steps.
Ngā mihi
The Long-term Plan Engagement Team
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How much has it cost to fix pipes in Aro Valley in the past 10 years and how much would it have cost to just replace the pipes in the first place? Fixing them is just a band-aid that seems to last a week or two before bursting again. A waste of money. Replacing rather than repeatedly band-aiding surely costs less in the long run.
Bryan Selwood asked 15 days agoKia ora Bryan,
Thank you for your question and your interest in the Long-term Plan.
The answer from the Water team is below:
Wellington Water have advised that they are unable to answer this question. This is because their access to service data only goes back to June 2020, and they have no way of comparing the total costs of repairing with the cost of replacing at that time.
Ngā mihi
The Long-term Plan Engagement Team
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I'd like an honest and logical explanation why has the cost for years of neglect pushed on to people who happen to own house in Wellington right now? Why are we, the rate payers made financially responsible for years of willful negligence caused by those who year after year failed to do their job? To expect people living and owning in Wellington to absorb the cost is simply unfair and it will cause a problems to those already struggling to keep up. People have started leaving the city and country, is Council taking this into account?
Moxi asked 15 days agoKia ora Moxi,
Thank you for your question and your interest in the Long-term Plan.
The answer from the Water team is below:
The national problem of ageing infrastructure and the need for delivery of safe, reliable drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services for current and future generations is front of mind both for the coalition government and local authorities.
The Council acknowledges that our water services network has been under-invested in. Competing priorities and a commitment to keeping rates as affordable as possible for our communities has led us to this point. However, our contracted water services provider Wellington Water, has worked with us to create deliverable options for investing in our network over the next decade. In conjunction with the coalition government’s ‘Local Water Done Well’, substantive changes to the planning and delivery of water services are on the horizon.
If you are ready to make a submission click here. Or download a hardcopy submission form here.
Ngā mihi
The Long-term Plan Engagement Team
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All of the three waters options offered above are based on heavy engineering and centralized processing. Has the council seriously investigated lower tech, lower capital cost, lower opex, on-site options? These options include on-site rainwater collection tanks, onsite greywater recycling to reduce water demand by 70%, and onsite blackwater processing. All that expensive pipework may not be needed!
Emef asked 14 days agoKia ora Emef,
Thank you for your question and your interest in the Long-term Plan.
The answer from the Water team is below:
Wellington Water has investigated the option of household rainwater storage tanks as an alternative to conventional “bulk” water supply. This work found that this option was not sufficient to provide both the required quantity and reliability of water supply. While it can be useful for reducing overall demand and can also provide stormwater detention and support post-earthquake resilience, a connection to a piped, bulk network is still required. The same dry periods that impact on the availability of bulk water from our rivers also result in no rainfall to replenish household water tanks. This is particularly a challenge for the many existing dwellings and multi-dwelling buildings that would struggle to accommodate substantive rainwater storage.
The situation with greywater re-use is similar to that for rainwater storage. If and where it can be incorporated into a dwelling it can provide a useful reduction in household demand. But a connection to the network will still be required and that network would need to continue to be sized for peak water demand.
Moving to on-property blackwater processing, i.e. composting toilets and other “water-less” toilet technologies comes with its own challenges – including transitioning existing housing stock and establishing a process for handling the residual solid product at scale. Households would need to totally disconnect from the wastewater system (i.e. both grey and black water) for the costs of operating, maintaining, and renewing the existing wastewater system to be avoided.
It is expected that there will be an increasing role for household-scale, community-scale and other distributed approaches over time, but this will necessarily be a gradual change and not a direct step-change due to the need to transition existing connections, to demonstrate successful performance, and to establish the supply chains required for installation and servicing
If you are ready to make a submission click here. Or download a hardcopy submission form here.
Ngā mihi
The Long-term Plan Engagement Team
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Why are we fixated on investing in water meters now when this will cost many millions more. We need to prioritise funding on fixing the pipes. Most problems are to the toby not on private property. Also, will rates combined with water levies decrease or increase collectively? In my experience rates rarely decrease and I fear people will end up paying more.
Paul G asked 18 days agoKia ora Paul G,
Thank you for your question and your interest in the Long-term Plan.
The answer from the Water team is below:
Subject to the outcome of the LTP consultation, it is intended that a regional business case be prepared within the 2024/25 financial year by Wellington Water Ltd. Through this process, they will investigate any methods of implementation for water meters and identify potential benefits. This planning will inform any next steps.
If you are ready to make a submission click here. Or download a hardcopy submission form here.
Ngā mihi
The Long-term Plan Engagement Team
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Hi there, Can you please provide a breakdown of the proposed capital expenditure costs for the nine projects listed for Option A, and the additional projects in Options B and C? Thanks and regards, Mazhar Ali
Mazhar Ali asked 22 days ago -
I live in a North Wellington suburb and notice leaking pipe repairs do not last before "re-leaking". It seems underground pipes need to be repaired multiple times. Serious consideration must be made to contractually penalise the pipe fixing contractors when pipes "re-leak". As a solution, would it be a good idea to include a "3 strikes" rule for the contracting company? ie, 3 strikes means on the third visit to fix the same leak in the same position, the contractors pay back the WCC (and the rate payers).
MikeM6037 asked 18 days agoKia ora MikeM6037,
Thank you for your comments and interest in our plan. To make a submission please click here. Or download a hardcopy submission form here.
As we need a full name for a submission we are unable to count this comment in our final submissions, but will include it in general feedback. If you would like this comment to count as your submission please email us at ltp@wcc.govt.nz. Please note you can only submit once.
Ngā mihi
The Long-term Plan Engagement Team
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The water seems to be a very critical and urgent item, and requiring a lot of funding and urgently. Can we not consider this an urgent item and divert any funds being placed towards non essential items. There have been a lot of expensive upgrade and improvement projects having funding assigned to them, but surely they aren’t as essential as water is? Also upgrading all the meters while is a great thing is not an essential thing, any projects for beautifying the city while would be great, would def be lower priority than having a huge debt and interrupted water, is this an option being considered??
Venessa asked 20 days agoKia ora Venessa,
Thank you for your question and your interest in the Long-term Plan.
The answer from the Waters and Finance team is below:
It is possible to reprioritise funding. There are many factors that need to be taken into consideration when prioritising projects including:
Community outcomes & focus priorities (page 12 of the consultation document).
Other infrastructure and investment required.
Associated risks if funding is reprioritised (e.g., health & safety).
Regulatory environment.
Work that may already be under way, contracted or committed.
Please refer to our Infrastructure Strategy for more information.
It is too early to speculate what potential benefits to expect from water meters ahead of the completion of a business case. Subject to the outcome of the LTP consultation, it is intended that a regional business case be prepared within the 2024/25 financial year by Wellington Water Ltd; this will inform any next steps.
If you are ready to make a submission click here. Or download a hardcopy submission form here.
Ngā mihi
The Long-term Plan Engagement Team
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Does the preferred option C include the installation of water meters?
Vikki asked 16 days agoKia ora Vikki,
Thank you for your question and your interest in the Long-term Plan.
Yes Option C includes the addition of $2.4m operational funding in the first year of the plan that will be ring-fenced for the planning and design work for water meters. It also includes $143.6m from year 4 to deliver the meters. How, or if, these will be implemented will be based on the business case and formal consultation with the community ahead of any decisions.
If you are ready to make a submission click here. Or download a hardcopy submission form here.
Ngā mihi
The Long-term Plan Engagement Team
