Column by Porirua Mayor – Anita Baker
You have no doubt seen media reports in recent days about Wellington Water and its shocking and costly failure to protect ratepayer funds in the delivery of water services across the region.
A series of bombshell reports were released on Monday, with a particular focus on costs, and the value for money of the services delivered by the council-controlled organisation.
They confirm our concern that Wellington Water has not been operating anywhere near as efficiently or cost-effectively as every ratepayer in the region has the right to expect.
In particular, the report finds that when benchmarked against councils across the country, costs have been ‘consistently more expensive’, particularly for drinking water and wastewater assets.
The reports also found a lack of oversight, assurance and weak financial processes and controls in the management of consultant and contractor panels.
It’s time to fix water services once and for all.
The results are terrible, but sadly I was not surprised. This is the reason we need change, and why I have consistently been an advocate of water services reform.
Wellington Water has never been fit for purpose and we must move rapidly to a more mature and accountable model that will serve us into the future. From its establishment, it has been relying on other organisations’ IT and financial systems, just one of many structural flaws in the current model, which is well and truly past its use-by date.
We’ve been on a five-year water reform path, and if we proceed with the preferred new model, Wellington Water won’t exist after 1 July 2026.
Porirua City is working with Hutt City, Upper Hutt City, Wellington City and Greater Wellington Regional Council, alongside iwi partners, on a new model for water services delivery.
The councils have agreed, subject to community feedback, that establishing a new multi-council-owned water organisation is the best way to deliver water services in the future. Each council will be consulting on this proposal starting on 20 March 2025.
In the meantime, we call on Wellington Water to do two things: concentrate on making its current operation as cost-effective as possible and prepare the organisation to be disbanded in anticipation of establishing a new water company with clearer accountability and a stronger investment path.
What we do next is critical—we need to move as quickly as possible to a new delivery model. Efforts to oust the very individuals whose investigations uncovered these structural failings and have begun to fix them—including chair Nick Leggett and CE Pat Dougherty—make no sense. We don’t have time to indulge in yet more finger-pointing when there’s more than enough blame to go around.
On the question of broader accountability, on Tuesday I met with other regional mayors and the Greater Wellington Regional Council to discuss the crisis. We agreed to release a joint statement, and I think it’s worth sharing with you in full.
“Today, representatives of the shareholding councils of Wellington Water Limited (WWL), along with iwi leaders, met to discuss the implications of WWL efficiency and value for money reports for water reform.
“All members of the Wellington Water Committee agree that it is utterly unacceptable that the operations and maintenance costs incurred by Wellington Water do not represent good value for ratepayer money. Members unreservedly apologise to the people of the Wellington region for the high costs identified and the failure to provide oversight on appropriate practices and organisational culture to ensure competitively priced services.”
Speaking on our behalf, Councillor Ros Connelly, Acting Chair of the Wellington Water Committee, added this:
“The impact on our communities is simply intolerable and it cannot continue.
*”We will be urgently convening a meeting of the WWL Committee where the reports, implications and response can be confirmed, and we will ensure clear accountability.
All those in attendance reconfirmed a commitment to the need for water reform and for Wellington Water Limited to develop a robust transition plan so that a new entity can start off on the right footing.
“As part of the transition planning, further work will be done to test the cost assumptions being used to inform planning for the new water organisation. These assumptions must be robust and reliable in preparation for our water services delivery plan being submitted by 3 September 2025,” Connelly said.