Three Waters Reform background
UPDATE: DECEMBER 2023
In December the Government agreed to repeal the previous government’s water services legislation. The Government is calling its plan for water services, Local Water Done Well.
Cabinet agreed to introduce a repeal bill that will restore council ownership and control of water infrastructure and services. The bill made the following changes:
All legislation relating to water services entities will be repealed (Water Services Entities Act 2022, Water Services Entities Amendment Act 2023, and Water Services Legislation Act 2023).
Previous legislation related to the provision of water services will be reinstated (including local government legislation).
What this means for Council
This means whilst we are waiting to understand how Local Water Done Well will impact on our service delivery and infrastructure delivery, Council is continuing on a business-as-usual basis.
Our current position within the 2021-31 Long Term Plan (LTP) will be revisited in the 2024-34 LTP to ensure will live within our financial constraints.
This may mean a lessening of infrastructure design whilst still ensuring environmental compliance or deferment of some projects.
Council will remain agile to regulatory change whilst ensuring our levels of service and public health obligations are maintained through our resource consent commitments.
Waters reform under the previous Government
In August 2016, there was a widespread outbreak of gastroenteritis in Havelock North, which saw about 5, 500 residents falling ill, 45 being hospitalized, and possibly three dying. Following this, in September 2016, the government lodged a formal Inquiry into the outbreak, finding that the campylobacter bacterium from sheep feces likely entered their aquifer, which was thought to be safe from contamination.
From mid-2017, the Government started the Three Waters Review to find ways of improving the regulation and supply arrangements of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater (three waters) to better support Aotearoa New Zealand’s prosperity, health, safety and environment.
Then, in July 2020, the Government launched the Three Waters Reform Programme: three-year programme to reform three waters service delivery arrangements. The basis for this reform was to deal with the challenges of having ageing, often non-compliant infrastructure against the cost of replacing, renewing, or upgrading our infrastructure to compliance as well as climate change and natural hazards resilience. The Government’s position is that current arrangements will not be able to address these intergenerational challenges and that transformational reform is required.
The Three Waters Reform Programme has four key outcomes:
- safe, reliable drinking water
- better environmental performance of wastewater and stormwater services
- efficient, sustainable, resilient and accountable multi-regional water and sewage services
- making it affordable for future generations
More information
To stay informed with the Three Waters Reform Programme refer to the Department of Internal Affairs website or the Three Waters website.