Source: Porirua City Council
Porirua City Council says today’s reports into Wellington Water Limited’s operations reinforce the urgent need for change in water service delivery in the region.
A series of reports were released today, with a particular focus on costs, and the value for money of the services delivered by the council-controlled organisation.
Porirua City Mayor Anita Baker said the shareholding Councils had sought assurance that Wellington Water had an absolute focus on delivery, value for money and sustainable operational improvements.
The need for this assurance became even more obvious when the company revealed a $51 million budget error in 2024.
“In response to this requirement for assurance, and with the appointment of a new Chief Executive in September 2024, Wellington Water commenced a series of immediate changes to company structure, organisational culture and processes to lift capability and improve outcomes,” Mayor Baker said.
“I would like to acknowledge the work of the board and new CE in finding and fixing these huge issues.
“Today’s reports confirm our concern that Wellington Water is not operating efficiently. In particular, the report finds that when benchmarked against councils across the country, costs have been ‘consistently more expensive’, particularly for drinking water and wastewater assets”.
The reports also found a lack of oversight, assurance and weak financial processes and controls in the management of consultant and contractor panels.
Mayor Baker said the results showed that we need to fix water services “once and for all”.
“The results are terrible, and I’m not surprised. This is the reason we need change, and why I have consistently been a supporter of water services reform.”
She said the fact that Wellington Water had been relying on other organisations’ IT systems was symptomatic of the many structural issues with the current model.
“The Wellington Water model is past its use by date. It has not worked as intended and we need to move to a more mature and accountable model that will serve us into the future ,” she said.
“We’ve been on a five-year water reform path, and if we proceed with the preferred new model Wellington Water won’t exist after 1 July 2026”.
Porirua City is working with Hutt City, Upper Hutt City, Wellington City and Greater Wellington Regional Councils, alongside iwi partners, on a new model for water services delivery.
The councils have agreed, subject to community feedback, that establishing a new multi-council-owned water organisation is the best way to deliver water services in the future. Each council will be consulting on this proposal starting on 20 March 2025.
Mayor Baker says in the meantime, Council has asked Wellington Water to do two things:
1. to concentrate on making their current operation as cost effective as possible
2. to prepare the organisation to be disbanded in anticipation of establishing a new water company with clearer accountability and a stronger investment path.
“What we do next is critical – we need to move as quickly as possible to a new delivery model.”