Peri Zee Upper Hutt water

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:08]Are you able to explain in plain English what is happening in regard to the water in Upper Hut, who owns it and who is paying for it?

[00:00:18]>> Yes, I'll start from the very beginning.

[00:00:21]So in uh water services we have a whole lot of um assets that have been built over a period of time owned by different um councils. We have the um the water storage lakes up in uh Timora that are owned by Greater Wellington. We then have from there um this is just for um uh fresh water but that drinking water comes down through the pipes which is what we as council city council currently own. Um and then when we flush the toilet that and um and have the water go down the uh shower drain pipe that goes down to the wastewater treatment plant in C view which is owned uh partly by our part city council where a minor um owner and the majority share is with hut city council. So we are already entwined with other councils as the situation currently is those um assets are maintained uh by Wellington water currently. So the change that's going to happen which has been mandated by government is that a new entity called Tiaki Y is going to uh provide the water services on behalf of councils.

[00:01:34]What happens in relation to ownership is that Tiaki Y is owned by the councils.

[00:01:40]We are the only shareholders and so we are transferring the ownership of those assets. So for Greater Wellington, the storage lakes for us the pipes and part of the water treatment plant to Tiaki Y and Tiaki Y is then owned by the councils. So we're essentially um owning a portion share of all of the assets in the region rather than just owning a part of the assets that relate to the network for us. So um the pipes are pointless if nothing goes in them and nothing can go out of them. So uh we certainly had to work together that was inherent but the um there is a lot of concern in the community around the transfer of those assets. essentially it's still owned in public hands, right?

[00:02:25]We are um just changing the way that ownership works. The decisions that have been made around pricing, around what gets fixed when um you know procurement, all of that will be made by the board.

[00:02:41]Uh and that is th those are independent uh directors. So uh we cannot as council um and as the partners committee we cannot direct the board. I'm not on the board. I'm on the partners committee and the partners committee cannot direct the board. So it's a it's a um the biggest change uh is that previously councils would say how much money was going to Wellington water and what projects to prioritize from their kind of list of priorities. And now the funding will be collected from uh Tiaki Y directly from from residents to Tiaki Y and Tiaki Y the board will decide what gets um funded uh across the region. So they're going to take a um a regional view uh on what the priorities are rather than us all individual councils just funding what we can when we can. um it is going to mean a lot of change and I understand that people are concerned but in in essence uh it is a um a better structure for making sure that uh things are being fixed when they need to be fixed in terms of priorities across the region.