While New Zealand grapples with an estimated NZ$100 billion water infrastructure gap over the next 30 years there is one solution which could make a difference and would be relatively cheap to roll out, and that is the increasing use of water meters.
Many councils around New Zealand were forced to impose water restrictions over the summer period, but in some council areas such as Kapiti restrictions were avoided and the use of water meters was credited as a key factor.
Janet Holborow, the Kapiti Coast District Mayor, said in a January radio interview that the decision the council made to roll out water metering just over a decade ago had significantly improved water use.
This was despite a major campaign against water meters which unseated the Kapiti mayor who advocated the roll out last decade, and prompted a petition calling for a referendum on the issue signed by 8000 people.
With the passage of time that decision, controversial then, would appear to be vindicated.
Lianne Dalziel, the former Christchurch mayor, Member of Parliament and Immigration Minister and Commerce, took up the water metering issue in a recent opinion column and made the point that water metering is not about charging for water use, it is about charging for water infrastructure.
“It is also about the collation of data which enables good decisions to be made by residents and councils alike,” Dalziel said.
“It also means there are sufficient funds to keep the water infrastructure in good shape.”
There has been deep suspicion of water metering in New Zealand, where rain is plentiful and many people have an attitude that water should be free.
The recent crises of water supply and quality, however, have shown that the entrenched and legacy approach to water management is not working and that new approaches are needed. While water metering began in 2010 it is still not universal.
Industry body Water New Zealand published a case study of water metering by the Tauranga City Council as an example of the benefits of volumetric metering.
Since the introduction of metering and volumetric charging in 2002, average per capita water consumption is 25% below levels prior to metering, and per capita peak use is 30% lower.
As well as these significant reductions in water use, there have been clear financial advantages to the Council.
The metering initiative has delayed estimated capital expenditure of NZ$70 million on water supply investments for more than 10 years, and the city is saving a net amount of approximately NZ$1million in depreciation costs for every year new infrastructure is delayed.
In her column, Lianne Dalziel says the evidence shows that water metering is clearly part of the solution for New Zealand.
Confronted by the prospect of higher water bills, many residents in Kapiti responded by identifying water leaks and the council discovered 443 leaks in the initial period of installation and many more in subsequent years. This discovery alone saved millions of litres a year from wastage.
There was also a 26% reduction in private household use once the meters were installed and even high water users reduced their consumption by 70%.
“These savings meant the River Recharge scheme had hardly been used even in dry summers when the rest of the region had to impose water restrictions,” Dalziel wrote.
“This also meant they could push out the building of a multi-million-dollar dam by 50 years.”
In January the local government authorities of Wellington City, Porirua City, Hutt City and Upper Hutt City were all forced to enforce water restrictions.
In Wellington around 40% of the city’s water supply, equivalent to the size of 27 Olympic sized pools each day, is being wasted due to water leaks. The City’s mayor estimates that it will take decades to fix the water network.
A majority of residential properties in the council area are unmetered and the recent crisis showed that there is still significant pushback against installation.
The Wellington Residents Coalition issued a press release saying “shock doctrine and bullying” was being used by the Minister of Local Government to pressure the mayor into accepting water meters.
“The alleged possibility that Wellingtonians may run out of water this summer is being deliberately confounded with the call for water meters,” the press release said.
“There have been El Nino events before but never officials advising us that we may run out of water. Even if the City Council decided to install water meters tomorrow they would not be installed by the end of autumn. Clearly water meters will not ensure that we will still have water this summer (or even future summers).”
On the comments section of the website a local resident replied with an opinion which would resonate with Lianne Dalziel.
“Without meters there is neither any knowledge of hidden leaks nor any reason for a house owner to stop them,” the resident wrote.
“Opposing water metering is irrational.”