NCC is first cab off the rank on future ‘3 Waters’ management.

Last week the Napier City Council received an update on its ongoing capital spending to improve Napier’s water infrastructure … the infamous ‘3 Waters’ — drinking water, stormwater and wastewater.

The NCC programme is budgeted at $24 million for 2024/25, broken down into $7.2 million for water supply, $7.2 million for storm water and $9.5 million for wastewater. Staff reported that the programme is on track, with 60% of the allocation spent to date. In her remarks, Mayor Kirsten Wise noted that $111 million has been spent on improving Napier’s water infrastructure since July 2019.

I was surprised that no mention was made of decisions pending across Napier and our three other local councils regarding how they intend to proceed to manage water services in the future – collectively, or each going it alone as they presently do. As required by the Government’s ‘Local Water Done Well’ initiative, our councils must submit a plan on this in September.

So, I sent a series of questions about this to Mayor Wise and received this major news: NCC will be recommending a collective approach as the preferred option it will put to public consultation shortly.

More specifically: a Regional, Hawke’s Bay Multi-owned Water Organisation (HBWO). This would include Central Hawke’s Bay District Council (CHBDC), Hastings District Council (HDC), Napier City Council (NCC) and Wairoa District Council (WDC).

The official decision to do so will occur at the NCC Council meeting on April 17. Here is the Agenda paper making the case for this option.

Here is the BayBuzz exchange with Mayor Wise.

BB: With the clock ticking on Government’s deadline for local water management plans, has the background analysis and modelling councils need to make their decision been completed?

Mayor Wise: “We have taken a leadership position throughout this process, from a governance perspective and with our own comprehensive water services programme. Of course there’s a huge amount of work happening at an officer level, and our CE has taken on the role as lead for the region on Local Water Done Well. We have done a lot of analysis and modelling and we’ve drilled down to the things that are most important for our community: cost, resilience, levels of service and engagement.”

BB: Where has NCC landed on the issue?

Mayor Wise: “We know change is essential and we have wanted to stay in the ‘driving seat’ throughout the process, which has been controlled very much by central government. As much as we know we could ‘go it alone’ in terms of value for money, it may make greater sense to work with our neighbours and drive hard for a model that includes multiple TAs. 

Although a joint approach is going to be more challenging in the short term, because it would be a significant change, across the board on those lasting measures, together could be the best way to go for Napier and that is certainly the officers’ recommendation that is being brought to the council next week.”

BB: And the reasons for NCC’s preferred option?

Mayor Wise: “Financially, in terms of our low debt, we are in the enviable position of being able to chart our own course, but there are benefits of being collaborative. One of the main ones is our workforce. We have excellent people across all levels of our water services, from the team on the ground, out there in all weathers, working on our network, through to our strategic planners, our project managers, our very clever data analysts, we have a great multi-disciplined team. For them, a joint approach may benefit them professionally, giving better development pathways for them.”

BB: What is your understanding as to where HB’s other councils stand?

Mayor Wise: “The option paper is coming to our council on 17 April, and I believe the other councils have meetings the following week. We are not playing a wait and see game. We are looking at what’s best for our community and leading based on that.

There have been indications from other councils at the staff level, but it’s up to councillors as the elected representatives of their community to decide the preferred option to put to their community. That is something that is only confirmed at the council meeting, so as much as we can take a very educated guess as to what the other councils should do, we won’t know until their elected members make their final decision.

For us, we are thinking far beyond a three-year term. We cannot do that kind of short-term thinking and still be of service to our community. We have to think beyond the here and now, and certainly in the water space, some of the benefits we know will happen for Napier are in the ten-year timeframe, rather than the immediate term.”

BB: Once each council has indicated its preferred option, what happens next?

Mayor Wise: “What we are currently doing is preparing to go out to our communities and ask them what their preference is in terms of a water services delivery model. We will then put that into the mix of information we deliver to the government in September. What we give them is like a proposal and they will then confirm our approach or they will tell us to go back to the drawing board. Our community’s voice is essential, and we have said that throughout the many years of potential water reform. We will listen and we will take our community’s views to Wellington.

From there, there are still many on-ramps and off-ramps. At this stage we are looking for a temperature gauge: go it alone or work together across the region? We know working together could work well, as long as the model ensures local voice and local representation in decision making. Fine tuning of the model, and what things will actually look like is for further down the track. Consulting with our community on water reform has been a long time coming so right now we are looking forward to a general steer from our community.”

BayBuzz will have more analysis of the case for a regional scheme as our other councils declare their positions.