Kaka St in Whangārei is well below the high tide mark. Photo / Tania Whyte
Kaka St in Whangārei is well below the high tide mark. Photo / Tania Whyte
OPINION
Recently, Whangārei District Council met locals over persistent flooding in Morningside, acknowledging the area is so low-lying – Kaka St is well below the high tide mark – that the current drainage system can’t cope. Major upgrades are needed.
I’m grateful for this meeting. Before Cyclone Gabrielle I checked on locals’ flood preparations. Business owners showed me the sandbags they keep on hand for even ordinarily rainy days. I discovered that the main drain hadn’t been cleared in years.
But these issues won’t decrease: the council’s own climate change maps show flooding increasing and, while it manages our drinking water and sewerage well (brilliantly, compared to many others), our stormwater systems were already a problem.
Nationally, “problem” doesn’t begin to describe the holes in councils’ water management, with the full cost estimated at about $180 billion over the next 30 years. Even the Local Government Association describes “decades of underinvestment” creating “broad systems failure” across New Zealand.
Nationwide, there were 3121 reported sewage overflows in 2021-22 alone. Meanwhile, half the country’s lakes are in poor health and half our rivers are unswimmable (including regularly the Hātea). Ten per cent of sewage plants have expired consents and 20 per cent need new consents in the next decade.
In Northland, it’s worse: of councils’ 30 wastewater treatment plants, five have expired consents, with 16 more expiring by 2029. Water standards have also increased – something which was largely welcomed by councils – increasing compliance costs.
Low-lying Kaka St was closed due to flooding during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Without action, massive rates hikes are inevitable. Whangārei District Council already hiked our water rates after Marsden Refinery stopped refining (and supplementing residents with its $2.5 million annual water payments), and it has just increased its proposed general rates rise to 10.9 per cent to cover the costs of Cyclone Gabrielle. Such extreme weather events are now more likely.
Governments have known the problem existed for decades. Until this Government, however, no one was prepared to step in. Our answer has been hugely and needlessly politicised. Yet almost everyone acknowledges that council borrowing is the only way forward and that those same councils will not be able to borrow enough unless they pool their assets.
The opposition’s plan is essentially no plan: leave councils to negotiate their own collective entities’ arrangements. But what about small councils with few ratepayers but huge issues, such as Kaipara and the Far North? Who partners with (and subsidises) them? Us alone? Our own council can’t afford what we ourselves need without massive hikes: our rates are predicted to reach up to $6000 a year in Whangārei by 2054 if we do nothing.
Labour is simply not prepared to put those extra costs on New Zealanders during a global cost-of-living crisis. Under our proposal to establish 10 water entities, households will still make massive savings: in Whangārei that means an average saving of about $4500.
We have heard the feedback loud and clear. The reforms need to save households from ballooning costs while also being more locally led. Our changes from four entities to 10 seek to strike that balance and give extra council votes at the governance table. The bottom line is affordable water reform is a necessity. Just ask Morningside.
