Mayor's Message - Local Water Done Well

Council last week unanimously signed off on our Water Services Delivery Plan, setting out how we will manage Nelson’s $800 million worth of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.

There has been great uncertainty since 2000 over how Council’s water services would be managed. The problem nationally is that many councils across New Zealand have neglected this vital infrastructure. Some, such as Wellington, have water mains bursting every week. Others, such as Queenstown, have neglected to invest in robust water treatment resulting in the risk of diseases such as cryptosporidiosis.

The previous government’s radical Three Waters policy was to take water infrastructure from councils. Nelson was to be put into one of four large water service entities that covered the lower North Island, the East Coast, Nelson, Marlborough and Tasman. Nelson would have ended up having to help fund the billions needed to upgrade neglected water networks such as Wellington’s.

We are much better positioned on water services than almost every other council in the country because previous councils made courageous investment decisions. The Maitai Dam in the 1980s gives us good security of supply, even in dry summers. Council’s decision in the 1990s to introduce water meters provides the right incentives to minimise waste. The Tantragee Water Treatment Plant, built in the 2000s, improved the safety of our drinking water from an E to an A grade. Council further improved our water security in the 2010s by adding a backup pipeline from the Maitai Dam.

I could have been persuaded to support the formation of a joint water entity with our neighbouring Tasman District Council if it was part of a full council merger. Tasman’s water services are more expensive than ours due to having many smaller community systems and more growth pressures. Sharing water costs across the region would be unfair on Nelson ratepayers if Tasman ratepayers were not also contributing more fairly to regional entities such as Trafalgar Park, our city’s art facilities, events, festivals and economic development. We will continue to work together on water where it makes mutual sense.

Council’s decision is for us to continue to manage our water infrastructure in house, but we must continue to invest. Our plan has $477 million for upgrades over the next 10 years. I am confident we have the right plan in place to ensure safe, quality water services for our city’s future.

Mayor Nick Smith