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Manukau City councillors last night voted to push up water rates - 4.9 per cent for water charges and 9.4 per cent for waste water.
A spokesman for the council-owned Manukau Water said last night that the average increase would be about 7 per cent.
Councillor Dick Quax last night slammed the increases, which he voted against with councillors Jami-Lee Ross and Bob Wichman.
Mr Quax said Mayor Sir Barry Curtis and the councillors who voted for the rise needed to explain it to the people of Manukau.
"Manukau Water signed up to a statement of intent less than a year ago stating that any rises in the price of water and waste water would not exceed the rate of inflation.
"The rate of inflation is at 2.6 per cent so to approve the rate rises at [up to] nearly four times the rate of inflation is a slap in the face of the Manukau water consumer."
Mr Quax said about half the residents of Manukau - the country's third-largest city with a population of about 335,000 - earned less than $30,000 a year. "Over the next 12 months they are faced by four increases all imposed by local government - higher rates, higher water charges, higher waste-water charges and 10c a litre petrol tax."
Manukau Water communications manager Mark Reynolds said the rise was not about making money.
He said the increase, which starts on July 1, would be about $40 a year for the average household.
"We are looking forward for the next 10 years and are facing wholesale price increases ... so we've got to allow for those."
He said the company had been set up less than a year ago. "Some of the price settings that we had back in July 2006 haven't quite turned out the way that was expected then. We are a cost-recovery business, we are not trying to make a profit."
The money would go into expanding the network, including building new waste-water treatment plants.
Sir Barry could not be reached for comment last night.
