A Global View of the Water Industry Offered

For Immediate Release

A Global View of the Water Industry Offered
International Speaker to Attend Major Water Conference

Wellington September 8 2005

Nick Morris, the head of Australia’s largest economic consultancy, ACIL Tasman Ltd Pty, and a former lead adviser to the United Kingdom’s 1980s water privatization programmes, visits New Zealand later this month to give the keynote address at EnviroNZ05- Water Matters in Auckland.

EnviroNZ05 is the annual conference of the New Zealand Water and Wastes Assocation (NZWWA) and this year incorporates the annual conference of the Australian Society of Trenchless Technology (ASST).

Nick Morris, chief executive of ACIL Tasman, will address the issues that New Zealand needs to face in ensuring an effective and sustainable supply of quality water in a global context.

Mr Morris says the issues that the incoming government will have to address are by no means unique although they are not as acute as those faced by Australia and other ‘dry’ countries. However, he warns that New Zealand should take heed of the lessons learned elsewhere.

”The global challenge for the water industry is to meet growing demand for water and water infrastructure, and to do that in an economically and environmentally sustainable way,” he says.

Nick Morris will examine market-based approaches to water resource allocation, institutional arrangements and the private sector’s role along with pricing and cost recovery.

NZWWA chief executive, Simon Carlaw, says the Association is extremely pleased to be able to offer the industry and wider business community an opportunity to hear Nick Morris discuss these issues.

“In addition to his obvious knowledge of the leading edge issues for our industry, Nick Morris has a career base that gives him a strong business perspective on those issues,” Mr Carlaw says.

As founder and CEO of London Economics in 1986 Mr Morris was closely involved in water and other utilities privatization, and then regulatory reviews of the UK industry. His work included public policy advice, development of financial and regulatory modeling software and using statistical benchmarking techniques to compare operator performance.

ENDS

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