Kerre Woodham: Upgrading our water infrastructure is long overdue

The first national picture of our water networks has revealed severe and immense pressures, with an average of 31 wastewater overflows across New Zealand every single day given as an example of how it's failing. In total, about 15% of our pipes are in poor or very poor condition – and that’s likely to be understating it, given that the pipes are under the ground and we only know there's a problem when there's a problem, like a sinkhole – good morning St Marys Bay, hello Wellington. Or when there's a major sewage overflow – good morning again Wellington, and looking at you, Queenstown Lakes and Herne Bay.

To be fair, a lot of the wastewater overflows are on us. Absolute morons cause blockages when they put things down the loo or the sink that shouldn't go down there. No, you don't pour your fat down there, because what happens when fat sets? Blocks everything up, doesn't it? Wet wipes, honestly, and the like. Will the Government's take on Labour's Three Waters, Local Water Done Well, fix the problem?

Well, even the proponent of Local Water Done Well, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says it's going to be “a mammoth challenge”. That's like a doctor saying there'll be quite a bit of discomfort – what they mean is severe agony. When they say a mammoth challenge, that's like, we're not entirely sure we can do it, but we have to give it a bash. One of the key points, he says, the Government wanted to achieve with Local Water Done Well is making sure the entities that deliver these water services are, in essence, match fit, are financially sustainable, and have the ability to deliver, not just now, but in the years, the decades to come.

There are significant challenges around infrastructure investment deficit, and we'll need to spend, on average and all things considered, around $4 billion per year over the next 10 years. Now, some have already got cracking and underway, and that was in part one of the reasons that Labour's version of Local Water Done Well, the Three Waters, received a bit of pushback. The first was that local mayors said that the Government shouldn't get their mitts on local assets. The second was that some councils had already spent a great deal of money doing the hard stuff, not just building pretty things that look great above ground, but had invested considerably in their water structures. Auckland has a very efficient, reasonably well-run department of water, if you will, Watercare, and they didn't want to hand that over to anybody in particular. And then, of course, there was the co-governance, which was very poorly sold.

And even now, when we're joining into big entities so that there's more clout when it comes to borrowing and sharing and pooling of resources, Auckland's like, “well, if you haven't spent a cent, Northland, on your water, why on earth should we carry you?” And other councils are feeling much the same way. But anyone who's living near Moa Point in Wellington right now would say spend whatever it takes to get the pipes fixed. Ask anyone in Havelock North who was affected by the campylobacter outbreak there this time 10 years ago. Almost 40% of the town struck by gastro when sheep dung contaminated the town's water supply. There were four deaths, 953 notified cases.

Upgrading our water system is not a “gosh, that'd be nice one day”. Upgrading our water was gosh, it would be nice one day 20 years ago. It is so overdue. The money must be spent now, and it's infrastructure that must be prioritised now.

Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.