Water management must remain co-operative

At today's Strategy & Policy Committee, Wellington City Councillors will be deciding whether to continue with using Capacity, a Council owned company, to manage their water services.

"Combining the management of the three water s across the Hutt Valley and Wellington City areas still makes sense", says Cr Celia Wade-Brown. "The current structure combines public ownership, democratic accountability and increased efficiency. If we don't cooperate, that is likely to encourage forced amalgamation."

"Councils own all the water assets, upholding the important principle of public ownership. While privatisation may be on Rodney Hide's agenda, it's not on ours!" says the Environment portfolio leader. Capacity manages the upgrades and maintenance of water, sewage and stormwater pipes and pumping stations. Capacity is 100% Council owned.

"We make democratic decisions on strategy, policy and pricing." For example, in October 2009, WCC voted unanimously to aim to accommodate Wellington city’s population growth through to 2025 with the same amount of water we have available to us now and agreed to consult in May 2010 on the next phase of the water conservation plan, which will not include compulsory water meters. "Councillors and the public generally understand that we need to start living within our ecological means and improved leak detection, education and involving all organisations, whether schools, Council departments or businesses, will be necessary." says Celia Wade-Brown.

"Our major water supply comes from the rainfall in the hills beyond Wellington City. Assessing which pipes to replace, where to focus on leak detection, what condition our stormwater pipes and outfalls are in needs considerable expertise. Logic means this can be shared across several Councils at less cost than each Council having their own specialist staff. If we don't share knowledge and improve efficiency in this way, ACT's agenda of forced amalgamation becomes more likely."

"People who are arguing against Capacity have good motives for retaining public ownership and for cooperative water conservation but don't seem to understand its role and ownership. Capacity is a mechanism for cooperation not privatisation. New recommendations for today's decision emphasise these points." concludes Celia Wade-Brown.

Reference to October 2009 decisions (Cr Pepperell and Mayor Prendergast were absent)
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/meetings/committee/Strategy_and_Policy/2009/15Oct0915/pdf/10_15.pdf

ENDS

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