Managing Hamilton's future water demand

Consideration of universal water metering is one of a range of measures Hamilton City Council is looking into as part of managing demand for the city’s water in the coming years.

Hamilton’s water demand has been steadily increasing with the continued growth of the city, and funding has been allocated in the 2012-22 10-Year Plan to upgrade the water treatment plant to meet this demand if necessary.

A report to Council’s Strategy and Policy Committee yesterday briefed Councillors on the long term water demand issues for Hamilton and outlined approaches to manage future demand, and to defer the need for major capital expenditure for as long as possible.

Council agreed to consider water metering of all properties as a suitable water demand management measure, and to evaluate as part of future Annual Plan and 10-Year Plan planning processes the best timing to introduce residential water metering. Commercial and industrial water users, which use 40 per cent of the city’s water, already pay for their water through metering.

The report follows previous agreement in the 2012-22 10-Year Plan to undertake a range of water management work across the city, including leak detection and loss management programmes to supplement the Smart Water Use conservation programme already in place in Hamilton and Waikato and Waipa districts.

Councillors also noted the long term risk around the city’s ability to access water for future growth due to regional water allocation polices.  Despite highlighting the impact of these polices through the recent Regional Policy Statement process, the RPS leaves Hamilton exposed to not being able to supply water for future growth needs. This aspect of the RPS is likely to be appealed by Council and other municipal water users.

Commenting, Committee Chairperson Councillor Maria Westphal says: “We need to be thinking now about how we manage the increasing demand for water in our city. The Waikato River is under immense pressure to supply water for a lot of different reasons and we all need to play our part, act sustainably and take the steps needed to manage this scarce and precious resource.

“Council has given an important signal that we will be considering water metering for all, as part of a range of measures to manage water demand, availability and security of supply in the long-term.”

Council is not considering, nor can it privatise water supply, which is not permitted under the Local Government Act.