New Wellington water entity Tiaki Wai opens books, warns of higher costs to households to boost investment
Wellington's ageing water assets will be handed over to new entity Tiaki Wai from July this year. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The capital’s new water entity is warning household water bills could reach as high as $6831 a year within a decade, as it reveals “sobering” challenges ahead.
Tiaki Wai takes over ownership and management of the Wellington region’s drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services from Wellington Water on July 1, as part of the Government’s Local Water Done Well reforms.
The new organisation has today opened its books, releasing its draft water services strategy, which reveals it needs a “significant increase in investment” over the next decade to get on top of the capital’s well-documented water woes.
Currently, water services are charged as part of council rates bills, but Tiaki Wai will start billing ratepayers directly from July this year.
Those quarterly bills will be higher than what ratepayers have already been paying for water services through their rates.
Annually, it adds up to an estimated 14.7% increase from the status quo for the 2026/2027 financial year, followed by an additional 28.7% increase the following year.
The average annual water bill will be $2418 for households in Wellington, the Hutt Valley and Porirua, but will vary by council area and capital value.
In 10 years’ time, annual charges are estimated to climb to as high as $6831 on average, the entity has warned.
At a briefing to media on Tuesday, board chairman Will Peet said it represented “really steep increases” for households.
“This is hardly a good time,” Peet said, “but also we can’t keep on kicking the can down the road, we need to start the investment.”
He said the organisation is inheriting $9 billion of water assets with “long-standing issues that require sustained investment”, as well as taking on $1.7b of debt.
Part of the reason for raising prices on Wellingtonians was allowing the organisation to operate with enough headroom to manage unforeseen events, such as the Moa Point Wastewater plant failure, Peet said.
“There is a ton of work to do,” he said, adding that Wellington Water does not currently have an asset management system and has no central record of asset conditions.
Despite significant increases to Wellington Water’s funding, the organisation has not managed to spend all the money it has received, recording a $15m underspend of Wellington City Council capital funding this financial year.
Asked why Tiaki Wai needs such a significant funding increase when its predecessor was unable to spend its allocated funding, chief executive Michael Brewster said the new organisation would be able to spend money better and more wisely than Wellington Water, and would have a longer-term view as it will own the water assets, unlike Wellington Water.
Households who are unable to pay their new water bills will not have their water turned off, Peet said, given “water is necessary for life”.
Tiaki Wai will also not be able to go to a homeowner’s bank to recover the owed money, but will have the same powers as businesses for debt collecting.
The draft Water Services Strategy is open for feedback at haveyoursay.tiakiwai.co.nz.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.