Water services delivery in Whanganui - planning for the future

We have to make some big decisions about how water services will be delivered to our community in the future. 
This is because new legislation means that all city and district councils must meet new, stricter rules and regulations around financial management and the quality of their drinking water, stormwater and wastewater services – the three waters.

We’re now on a tight timeframe set by the government to decide our preferred option for the future delivery model for water services. We’ll be formally consulting with the community in early 2025.

What does the government require us to do?

In August 2024 the government passed legislation that sets a new direction for water services, called Local Water Done Well.

Read more about Local Water Done Well

What does this mean for city and district councils?

There will be new rules for investment, borrowing and pricing and new options for how we deliver water services.

City and district councils throughout New Zealand are required to formulate a plan (Water Services Delivery Plan) within a year to show how they will deliver water services that meet these new water quality and infrastructure standards while being financially sustainable in the long-term.

The Water Services Delivery Plan must say what service delivery model we propose to use in the future. It must show that the delivery of water services will be financially sustainable and can meet new regulatory standards by June 2028. 

How will this affect the cost of water services, including to Whanganui users/ratepayers?

While we have made some good investment decisions in the past about our three waters, compared to other councils, we expect it will cost our ratepayers more in the long run to meet the new rules and regulations put forward by the government.

What are the extra costs?

• Increased costs to demonstrate our compliance to the new economic regulator
• Increased project and operating costs to comply with new water quality regulations

What happens next?

The government has set a tight timeframe for the changes. The new rules mean councils will have to consult on their preferred delivery model in early 2025.

These are the options from the government:

• In-house business unit (our current delivery model)
• Single council-owned council-controlled organisation (CCO)
• A council controlled organisation (CCO) owned by the council and one or more of our neighbours.
• Mixed council / consumer trust – a consumer trust established as the majority shareholder with one or more councils owning a minority of shares
• Consumer trust – council assets would transfer to a consumer-trust owned organisation

We are considering the pros and cons of all these options, but when we consult in 2025 we are only required to set out two delivery options. We have to take a range of factors into consideration when we make a decision on how to move forward – including the financial impact on water users, community views, and the strategic advantages and disadvantages of each option.

If we do decide to join up with others we will still get to make the decisions about how those joint arrangements will work.

Early next year we will formally consult the community about the proposals in our Water Services Delivery Plan before it is adopted.

How the community had its say

Before we formally consult with the community, we were keen to hear what’s important to you about how water services are delivered to our community, including the statements below. 

Is it important to you that:

• water services are affordable
• drinking water is clean and fresh
• wastewater is safely taken away and processed
• stormwater doesn't damage property or infrastructure (e.g. roads or parks)
• rivers, lakes and seas are not negatively influenced by waste or stormwater 
• there is a focus on Te Awa Tupua Whanganui catchment area
• water service infrastructure supports the growth of our district
• you receive a prompt response to water service issues when they are reported
• there is a long-term view to water infrastructure – for example, ensuring our district is resilient to flooding into the future and/or our infrastructure supports growth