Focus Live: PM Jacinda Ardern gives infrastructure announcement on Three Waters plan
Finally, a bailout.
Hawke's Bay councils, which have all struggled in various ways to provide water infrastructure to the people they represent - once with truly awful consequences - are now getting Government help.
Jacinda Ardern's motorcade on Wednesday drove on to the site of the Brookvale bore found tobe the source of the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak that killed four in 2017.
The Prime Minister, at the beginning of a heated election campaign, stood metres from the cold but politically charged site and announced to gathering dignitaries and media that the Government would invest $761 million in New Zealand's water services.
That's the job of local government, but the rising cost of fixing "run-down" drinking, wastewater and stormwater networks - and the danger of doing nothing - have forced Ardern and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta's hand.
Roughly $50m of the fund will go directly to councils in Hawke's Bay with funds allocated on a population and land-area basis.
It won't fix everything in Hawke's Bay and is a drop in the bucket of the $314m all five of the region's councils collaboratively asked for earlier this year.
Ardern said the country's public water infrastructure needed upgrading, and local government often didn't have the resources needed to fix it.
"This $761m investment will kick-start much-needed work to bring our drinking, waste and storm water infrastructure up to scratch," she said.
"Nationally the estimated capital costs of upgrading drinking water treatment plants to meet health standards is between $309m and $574m. The investment will help to cover some of these costs.
"Investing in water infrastructure is about investing in the health of New Zealanders."
Four years ago, four people died and about 5500 others got sick in the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak. The outbreak affected one third of the Havelock North community.
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said HDC had incurred a debt of $60m working to upgrade infrastructure following the campylobacter outbreak. Photo / Warren Buckland
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said Hastings District Council had incurred a debt of about $60m over the past four years working to upgrade infrastructure after the outbreak.
"This site taught our community, taught our council and taught our country the true value of water," she said.
"We have welcomed the opportunity for our region to work collaboratively and in tandem with our Government."
Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise, whose city has been ravaged by dirty water since the introduction of chlorine into the water supply, said her city would buy into it.
Hawke's Bay Regional Council chairman Rex Graham, Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Alex Walker and Wairoa Mayor Craig Little also support the plan, though Little said he didn't want Wellington "imposing" its solution on his district.
Walker said all five Hawke's Bay councils collectively submitted a bid for $314m of Government investment funds for Three Waters infrastructure upgrades in Hawke's Bay to the Crown Investment Programme in April.
"While many councils across the country did the same, what's different here in Hawke's Bay is that the review process we have under way meant we were able to collaborate on our application, setting out a joint approach to delivering the work," she said.
"The $50m the Government has announced for immediate infrastructure repairs and maintenance is a welcome first step."
The Prime Minister said New Zealand's problems with drinking water aren't limited to Hawke's Bay, with an estimated 34,000 New Zealanders becoming ill from drinking water every year.
"Many communities around the country cannot drink their water without first boiling it," she said.
"Councils that own and run water services need assistance to maintain or renew infrastructure. In particular rural councils with small ratings bases often can't afford the sort of investment need to upgrade their water infrastructure."
PM Jacinda Ardern said Hawke's Bay councils would receive in the region of $50m between them to assist with their water infrastructure upgrade work. Photo / Warren Buckland
The financial investment from the Government is contingent on local councils opting in to a wider water reform programme, which could mean compulsory chlorination in future if the Government sees the need for it.
The cumulative effect of increasing capital costs, infrastructure maintenance and upgrades, enhanced standards and environmental challenges mean that the current operational and governance arrangements for water are not sustainable and consolidation is required.
Mahuta said there are "massive looming costs" across the Three Waters networks - wastewater, stormwater and drinking water.
"The current service delivery arrangements, particularly for the smaller rural and provincial councils, are not well-placed to meet these," she said.
"Today's announcement will lend the reform programme's initial stages very real impetus and councils will need to sign up to the wider reform agenda in order to access the Government's funding.
"We want to see new arrangements made that provide scale in the form of public multi-regional water entities – and take account of catchment-related and communities-of-interest considerations."
Mahuta also acknowledged the progress that Hawke's Bay's councils have made towards investigating shared service arrangements.
"This will put them, along with others who have developed similar initiatives, in an excellent position to consider the advantages of the reform programme," she added.
"New Zealanders in all our communities have every right to turn on the tap and drink the water in the knowledge that it is safe. We also want to be able to swim in our rivers and lakes and go to the beach and gather kai moana without getting sick."
