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The Three Waters reform is little understood but widely unpopular.
Lance Girling-Butcher is the chair of the New Plymouth Positive Ageing Trust
OPINION: A time bomb started ticking when New Plymouth’s first European settlers struggled, almost 200 years ago, to set up home in the region.
That time bomb is about to explode. Little did those pioneers and early planners realise they were starting a process that would eventually come to bite their descendants in their pockets.
Little did they think, as the streets spread out from its centre and they began building a network of pipes for drinking water reticulation, storm water clearance and sewage, that the system would eventually become a massive problem for those who were to follow.
Many of those reticulation systems are now reaching their use-by date and require either updating or replacement while at the same time the tentacles of these pipes expand out with the population to supply a growing urban area.
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This, plus the failure to evolve a totally satisfactory way of financing local body development and maintenance have combined to create a nightmare in which New Plymouth is only one centre of 67 involved.
The Labour government’s answer to this development is a $3 billion scheme known as ‘Three Waters’.
This idea is causing widespread confusion and controversy. It needs to overcome the hurdle of poor communication and public education.
In a bid to inform the public better New Plymouth Positive Aging, Grey Power and Age Concern are combining to hold a free educational forum at the New Plymouth District Council on February 9, where Mayor Neil Holdom will speak on this matter and on other plans he has for the district.
Council is heading into intense debate over the cost of rates with a long-term plan that has a number of attractive, useful and far-sighted projects that are testing the government’s lack of financial support for local authorities and causing considerable anger.
Among the many questions still to be answered about the Three Waters development is just how big an impact it will have on local government, and just how it will be managed and financed in the future.
In New Plymouth water occupies more than half of the efforts of the district council staff and it’s still not clear what this means to the full council and the people involved in this work.
Will we need a smaller elected council? Obviously there will be staff cuts.
How will the public have their say in what happens with water administration and staffing? A large chunk of the existing staff will move to whatever organisation is set up to administer water in the future.
In the 1980s David Lean rose to power on a campaign to more cleanly dispose of the district’s sewage. He was New Plymouth’s first environmentally friendly mayor.
He will also be wondering what rewards there are for this entrepreneurial project that got the district the carousel treatment plant and made New Plymouth a leader in sorting out sewerage issues.
It would also be interesting to know what rewards we should get for other recent improvements to water treatment and stormwater clearance?
It is yet another significant change that Labour has announced without working out the finer detail, leaving people confused and annoyed.
We can only hope that Mayor Holdom will have some answers to this and just how it will fit in with the council’s own exciting long-term plan.
You can learn more by attending the forum which starts at 9:30am on Thursday, February 9, in the council chamber and will run through till 11 am.
They will be coffee and tea beforehand and we should warn that the bus from the racecourse will not be operating for this meeting.
Lance Girling-Butcher is the chair of the New Plymouth Positive Ageing Trust
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