An immense challenge is ahead of Iawai/Flowing Waters, the new mega water services entity set up by neighbours Hamilton City and Waikato district councils – to sort out what’s best and what’s not, to deliver us drinking water, take away our waste, and keep us safe in rainstorms.
Margaret Evans
This is to be signed off by 1 July next year with their long-term plan, their inaugural Water Services Strategy (WSS).
There are mega millions of dollars at stake here, and we the people are (and should be) very interested parties since we will end up paying for whatever they decide. Which is why the door now needs to be opened wide to let some fresh thinkers and innovators in.
In mid-October, red and orange risk warning lights were officially flashed in reports to the new Iawai board in the struggle to sort out cost estimates. The city’s sole sewage processing plant at Pukete can’t handle the quantity on big wet days, and that’s just one issue, not new, and needing a rethink.
The board intend completing their draft WSS in December, then ‘pre-consult’ with some interested parties, consult publicly in March next year, with the final version ready for the new era in the new financial year 2026-27 (July-June).
‘Developers’ have been included in the pre-consult group (along with the two shareholder councils and their Futureproof staff, as well as Waikato Tainui iwi and hapu). Probably in response to businesses’ public outcry when Hamilton pulled the plug on their housing development plans because of problem pipes earlier this year.
Then there was the $2.9m blowout on the Collins Road ‘poo’ holding tanks and two weeks ago news of challenges over plans for further tank sites (including Steele Park and Hamilton Boys High).
That brings the focus back to two decades of inadequate planning and maintenance, to-ing and fro-ing between Futureproof and consultants, council officials and mana whenua, and the influence of the $650,000 Cranleigh Report 2014 (which projected savings of $468million over 28 years).
If only…
Nanaia Mahuta.
Waipa mayor Mike Pettit
Water services are a nationwide issue, identified by Labour’s Minister Nanaia Mahuta and now high on the Coalition Government’s agenda.
Surely it is time for some fresh thinking, a deeper understanding of the causes of our current challenges, and a serious evaluation of and for the future, here and across the nation. This is a major challenge for new mayors Tim Macindoe and Aksel Bech, and it seems it’s on their shared agendas.
That should include Waipa’s new mayor Mike Pettit too? Today’s excessive pricing legacy from past electricity industry reforms is a reminder that solutions require more than new corporate structures and boards.
