Fresh air and tired facilities

Eketāhuna is a kind of synonym for a place so small and singularly rural that it might have been invented in a story book.  

I’ve driven through it many times, and even as I write I have to look on a map to see exactly where it is. State Highway 2. Thirty-five kilometres north of Masterton. A peekaboo out of the farmland.  

We have driven from the south, and we’re meeting Tararua Mayor, Tracey Collis, who’s kindly coming from Dannevirke, almost an hour north.  

We arrive first, it’s early but there’s a bustle unfolding. The Four Square. Second-hand shops and a homeware, gifts and clothing store opening for the day, the town’s famous “Adult Boutique”, as unexpected a sight as you can imagine in a tiny, country town. But well and truly part of the whānau now.  

We order coffee from The Lazy Graze café, where we’re served by a delightful young person whose boyfriend is a shepherd and loves it there. These New Zealand lives.  

Mayor Collis arrives, with a team from the Tararua District Council, including its Chief Executive, Bryan Nicholson, who’s greeted with raucous derision (mostly from me) when he asks for a mocha. Then we head down to the poo pond.  

“So, this is the Eketāhuna wastewater ponds”, Mayor Collis says. “And as you can smell, there’s nothing but fresh air, here.” 

As I can smell, she’s right.  

But what makes this facility fascinating is not that it doesn’t smell, it’s the numbers attached to it. Most of all, as Mayor Collis tells me, the fact it “services 252 homes”. 

Think of that. An entire wastewater treatment facility for fewer homes than are on many city streets.  

And, because most of these facilities date from less enlightened times, it was built directly beside a river. 

“So, where we’re standing here”, Mayor Collis says, “this is in excess of fifty years old. Would it be what you’d build today? No it wouldn’t. Would it be the location that you’d build today? No, it wouldn’t.” 

And yet here it is. Emblematic of something larger than itself. How our aging water infrastructure was built so far short of current compliance standards - and the cost of consenting and inspecting and rebuilding to try and catch up. 

Do you get any Central Government money to help pay for your water infrastructure?  

“No," Mayor Collis replies. “We need to talk about the funding model, ‘cause it’s broken… In the Tararua District we have 10,200 ratepayers, paying for seven wastewater treatment plants, seven water treatment plants, 39 consents, and 4,000 consent conditions. It’s a lot.” 

A refresh and a dead possum 

We pass through Woodville, stopping at a hilltop water treatment plant that looks like the set of a Gothic movie. They can’t afford to start from scratch, but they’re modernising it. New filtration. UV treatment. Some of it looks like it should be condemned. Some of it looks new and flash. 

Last month, a dead possum was found in the water tank and a “boil water” notice had to be issued.  

Kiwi as. Kiwi, rural water infrastructure, that is. 

A distinct theme is emerging 

Our tour guides are heading back to Dannevirke, the Tararua District’s biggest town.  

A council meeting is about to take place, and we follow them. On the agenda, and I kid you not, the cost of upgrading and replacing Tararua’s water infrastructure so that it’s compliant, effective and fit for purpose. 

Peter Wimsett, the council’s manager of strategy and district development, is one of two experts making a presentation. He speaks very deliberately. 

“All of the work is not affordable. We understand that what we’re putting in front of you cannot actually be done by this council. We are not financially in a position to do so. And that, in itself, is the challenge.”  

“For our country”, Mayor Collis tells me.  “You know, not just in the Tararua District. This is over the entire country that they’ll be facing these challenges.” 

‘We need to preserve our beautiful awa’ 

We get fish and chips in Woodville. This isn’t an important detail, and it’s not strongly related to water infrastructure, but it was a part of our roadie, and they were really good.  

Then we drive to Palmerston North for the night, and on, the next morning, to Marton, in the Rangitikei District.  

I hadn’t been to Marton for years.  And I’d never previously met Andy Watson, the Mayor of Rangitikei, who’s based there. He proudly shows Matt and me his District on three large maps on his office wall.   

“These were maps that my wife gave to me when I came into the job. I love her dearly, obviously.” 

Obviously.  

He points out all of Rangitikei’s towns. There aren’t many. But he makes up for that by saying “Hunterville” as if it were “New York”. Andy Watson loves his wife, dearly, but his love for Rangitikei can’t be very far behind.  

He says “awa” for “river”, and speaks joyfully of his connection with Rātana Pā, where he occasionally goes to church. 

‘I admire Nanaia for the vision she had’ 

Again, this is a district with multiple, small, water and wastewater facilities. But Rangitikei has budgeted for their infrastructure catchup, and currently seems better equipped than many rural districts to cope. (Although only just. And only if costs don’t rise.)    

“I admire Nanaia for the vision she had,” Mayor Watson tells me. “But the Government weren’t able to support it in terms of practise, and there were so many unanswered questions. But she raised the conversation.” 

And the conversation has to be had. The Rangitikei District Council has previously been fined for discharging untreated wastewater into the Hautapu Stream, near Taihape.

“We believe we have a responsibility for three waters”, Mayor Watson says. “We need to be compliant. We need to prevent our wastewater streams from going into our beautiful awa. You know, we’re blessed with some stunning scenery, and we need to preserve it.” 

The trouble with Taihape 

 The issue here is the particularities of parts of this district. And Taihape provides a striking example of that. “Taihape is one of our challenging ones.  

First of all, it’s reasonably distant, reasonably remote, so it’s not an easy job to pipe it to someone else, another town within our cistrict, or elsewhere… And the geography, for those who aren’t aware of the Rangitikei, you’re talking steep papa country. We don’t have the Class 1, 2 or 3 soils that are disposal fields, available there.” 

They’ve formed a working group, they’re actively involved with iwi, but what do they do? How does a small district council get Taihape’s entirely challenging wastewater right? And what neighbouring council in their right mind would want to buy into that expensive problem?  

“Our council faces these issues. You know, we’re operating outside compliance or consent at some of our plants, but at least we’ve negotiated a pathway and allowed funding to get there.” 

As part of this funding, Rangitikei is attempting its own version of merging assets to achieve economies of scale.  

The towns of Marton and Bulls are 14 kilometres apart. They each have their own wastewater plants. The council’s attempting to get consents to pipe them together. That’s a significant initial cost, but then less maintenance and upkeep, half the consent costs and half the environmental risk over time.        

But it all costs so much money. And, like Tararua’s Tracey Collis, Mayor Andy Watson believes, “the funding mechanisms that are currently in place for local government are just not sustainable… 

“It has been a ticking time-bomb for New Zealand, and the fuse is getting very short.” 

An empty boardroom and a minister’s vision

Despite its grim subject matter, I truly love a road trip. But all good things must come to an end.  

The working part of our roadie ended in Bulls, with rain beginning to set in as Matt filmed our final wastewater treatment station.  

The next morning, with Andy Dalton, another favourite cameraman I work with, I went to see Simeon Brown.   

The interview was in a boardroom on Queen St. One of those ubiquitous corporate spaces which, when empty, have no evidence of human occupation. Like the moon. With office chairs.  

Outside, a drain was overflowing. Andy filmed it. But it wasn’t a poo pond in the mighty Rangitikei.  

And then the local government minister arrived, fitting us in between meetings, in that hell schedule that senior cabinet ministers somehow endure. 

Local Water Done Well 

Local Water Done Well is the first part of the coalition government’s response to our water infrastructure crisis.   

Last month, I was sitting at my desk when a media release from Simeon Brown arrived: Labour’s Three Waters legislation repealed, it was headlined.

It begins: “The Coalition Government’s legislative plan to address longstanding issues with local water infrastructure and service delivery took an important step today, with the repeal of Labour’s divisive and unpopular Three Waters legislation.”  

I wondered what the legislative plan was. Particularly when, only six paragraphs later, the minister declared, “We are asking councils to lead the way in developing local solutions to our water services challenges.” 

That sounds less like a “legislative plan” than no plan at all in search of an alibi.  

But perhaps, as was often the case in the coalition government’s first 100 days, the key word in Simeon Brown’s media release was repeal – “the repeal of Labour’s divisive and unpopular Three Waters legislation”.  

Q&A with the minister 

JC: So, what is Local Water Done Well?  

SB: It’s a policy saying, look, water is a local government responsibility, it’s one of their critical responsibilities, local infrastructure. But we want to enable councils to financially, sustainably, invest in water infrastructure in an affordable way, over the long term. 

JC: Where will the money be coming from? 

SB: Well, this is about providing councils with those tools. And so we’re gonna see, we’re likely to see councils forming council-controlled organisations across multiple councils, they’ll be able to use off-balance sheet funding, to be able to access debt, ah, to match the lifetime of those assets with the funding, so that they’re able to make those investments. So, that’s the model that we see as going to work, and it lets councils decide who they want to work with, it lets councils decide, um, what those types of investments will be. And ultimately we’re going to have a regulatory oversight, rather than a mandatory approach, which was what the last Government was taking. 

JC: So, are you going to put any money into this, at all?  

SB: Well, ultimately, it’s about providing the tools for councils to be able to make those investments over the long term. 

JC: Okay, setting aside the tools, money. Any money? 

SB: Well, ultimately, what we’re focused on is the long-time tools, this is a long-term challenge, and we want to have long term tools, so that means having the ability for councils to set up these entities, to be able to have a financially sustainable approach to water infrastructure so they can access the long-term funding and financing.  

JC: Do you see more water metering being used by councils?  

SB: Absolutely. So, that is part of making sure people who use pay according to their usage; it also means you make better use of your resources. Water metering is a critical part of that, and we see a lot of councils actually moving in that direction, so they can make sure they’re reducing waste, they can make sure that those who use it are paying for it, and then making sure those revenues are then tied to servicing that long-term debt. To make that affordable for ratepayers and users in the long term.  

JC: Does Local Water Done Well essentially give this new government the opportunity to wash their hands of any ownership of water infrastructure, and say, ‘hey councils, it’s all on you’. Even if the council is manifestly too poor to deal with the problem? 

SB: No. No, no, no. I completely reject that. What we’re saying is, first and foremost, water infrastructure is a local council responsibility, but central government will play a key role… 

JC: What role? 

SB: Well, firstly, we’re going to require them to put in place a water service delivery plan, we will have a regulatory backstop if they don’t deliver that. We will have step-in powers to ensure that those councils do undertake that plan. And we will also make sure that councils are working together so that no council is left behind. So, we are going to play a critical role, but ultimately, at the same time, we’re going to respect the important role that local councils have in delivering local infrastructure, something we criticised the last government for not doing, and which voters rejected.  

Will local water be done well? 

And so there we have it. The councils say they can't afford it. The government says they have to.

In Wellington, leaking pipes explode through roads and footpaths and 77 million litres of water is lost each day.  

in Tararua, Rangitikei and rural regions throughout the country, facilities that aren’t compliant or were built before compliance was even a thing, are regularly still in use.  

Gillian Blythe from Water New Zealand suspects we don’t even know the scale of the problem.  

Campbell Barry from Lower Hutt and Wellington Water says he worries some councils will “basically go bankrupt”. 

Tracey Collis from Tararua says the funding model is “broken”. 

And Andy Walton from Rangitikei says, “it’s a ticking time-bomb for New Zealand.”  

Will local water be done well? 

Can it be?  

And where will the money come from to make that happen?