Wellingtonians will face "really steep" increases in their water bills over the next decade, to as high as $6831 a year, as its new water entity tries to fix old, failing infrastructure, its chairman says.
By Ellen O'Dwyer of RNZ
That would start with an average increase in water charges for Wellingtonians of 14.7%, or an extra $310 this year, with charges possibly increasing by 28% in 2027-2028, and more than doubling by 2036.
Wellingtonians - those living in Wellington City, Porirua, Hutt City, and Upper Hutt - have been paying an average of $2100 a year for water through council rates. From July, they will receive separate quarterly water bills and would have to set up new payments to Tiaki Wai.
Put another way, an average household across Wellington's four cities - Wellington, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Porirua, was set to pay about $2418 per year this coming year and pay $6831 (with inflation) by 2036.
Releasing the indicative charges in its water services strategy on Wednesday, Tiaki Wai board chairman Will Peet said he knew the price rises would be unpopular under cost-of-living pressures, but the topic needed to be addressed now.
"We're conscious that everyone's been facing rising costs over the past few years, and that any increase is challenging for people.
"And I think, also for me, It's taken 30 years to get to this position, and it will take more than five minutes to fix."
Tiaki Wai was replacing Wellington Water and inheriting the region's assets - managing and providing drinking water, wastewater, and piped stormwater services from July.
Peet said this year, the exact amount of bills would vary from city to city and property to property in the same way rates varied.
For example, this year Porirua residents would pay an average increase of $368 per year for water charges, Lower Hutt residents an extra $349, Upper Hutt residents an extra $278 and Wellington residents an extra $275.
The four councils' rating model was being transferred to Tiaki Wai for the first year's bills, but over time, the organisation would move to a common pricing model.
Peet said he wanted to be upfront with residents about what costs would look like, and to ask them for feedback on the organisation's strategy.
"That said, these are still really steep increases and I know you'll see some of that from other water authorities around the country, but these are significant increases."
He said no one would have their water turned off if they were struggling to pay a bill.
According to its strategy document, Tiaki Wai had a hardship policy, including issuing reminder notices and contacting external debt collecting agencies, if necessary, but Peet told reporters debt collecting was not what the organisation was considering right now.
Peet was blunt about the challenges for the organisation, saying it would take many years to catch up with decades of underinvestment.
"Infrastructure everywhere, you can't keep on kicking the can down the road otherwise it comes back to bite you," he said.
"We have been deferring expenditure in water for a long time, and it's not my place to determine past decisions, what I can tell you now is that we need to make the hard decision and start to invest."
The strategy document noted many critical assets were in a poor condition, too old and presenting a "significant risk of failure", including that three out of four wastewater treatment plants were non-compliant, with problems going back many years.
Wastewater networks were overflowing and stormwater systems were regularly contributed to flooding and pollution, it said.
Added to this was the organisation's financial position - Tiaki Wai needed more money to operate, Peet said.
The organisation would take over $9 billion of water assets and around $1.7 billion of debt from the councils, but the amount of revenue being collected by councils - about $385 million in 2025-2026 - had not been enough to meet the long-term cost for water services.
One of the organisation's main priorities from July was to fix the Moa Point Treatment Plant, Peet said, which was still spewing raw sewage into the sea after a catastrophic failure in February.
Peet would not comment on if there was a plan to stop that, and said it was a "bit early to say" how much it would take to fix the plant, referring those questions to current owner Wellington City Council.
"We'll be working really closely with Wellington City, as they work through the Moa Point issue. I live near the South Coast myself, I know what an impact it's having, we all know we need to do the right fix, at the right time to make sure it stops."
He would also not comment on any current suppliers operating the plants, including Veolia.
The organisation had been set some strict targets by Wellington regions' mayors and mana whenua partners, including that it would not receive any abatement notices, fines, or prosecutions from Greater Wellington Regional Council for non-compliant plants.
Peet said it was the right target to aim for, but with long-standing infrastructure issues, it would not happen in first year.
"We won't be meeting those in the initial stages, because Wellington Water is not meeting them.
"What happens on the 30 June, will be pretty much what happens on 1st July - that said I think it's an entirely reasonable expectation that the people of Wellington, through the partner's committee, should set us some aspirational goals to improve things."
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