A group of concerned residents meet last Tuesday the 24^th of March at the King Lion Hall to talk about the issues of Amalgamation of Wellington regions council and the new water corporation Taiki Wai, water management. No council member was present. The issues of water delivery dominated the meeting. The residents group expressed their dissatisfaction in the lack of detailed information provided to them by council prior to the agreement by council to amalgamate Upper Hutt’s water assets and services. A strong belief was expressed that the end goal of amalgamated water service and delivery is privatization. The group agreed to canvas council members to provide answers to their questions as they agreed council should have explored these questions before committing residents water service to Tiak Wai corporation that residents have no control over. The group is considered agitating for area wide water meters rather than individual households’ volumetric meters, to identify possible leaks in any given area. Leaks can then be pinpointed by manual detecting. This is a feasible alternative to costly volumetric water meters that are billed for the purpose of identifying leaks and water conservation, not as a tool for water charging. The questions the group is putting to council members are:

• By whom and how are the charges of water service to be set, are they to be $7 per day and or $250 per household per month, and what is the projected on-going costs to be.
• Why did we need to create a new water entity and how does Tiaki Wai expenses add to the ongoing cost of deliver of water.
• That the proposed costs and the charging of them will impact unfairly on lower incomes is morally wrong and is regressive not progressive.
• If the proposal to introduce volumetric water meter is progressed will shared properties have individual meters
• Will volumetrically water chargers be on only water used.
• Will water charges decrease if less water is used.
• Do we get an improved water service, greater value for money
• Can we have assistance to bring plumbing up to specifications
• What is being done to improve monitoring of loss of water in the mains network.
• We need an organisational chart to show who is accountable and to whom.
• Will there be a smart system warning of sudden water loss or if not leniency for undetected water loss
•  We don’t want a half-arsed system if volumetric charging to happen.
• When major investment is required, we should be looking within New Zealand to provide the upgrading of services e.g. for new sewerage works, reservoirs?

A “thank you” to Teresa Homan for sending this letter to The Upper Hutt Connection.

25/03/26