Water 2030 - 3 Waters Strategy

Council is developing a 20 year strategy for the ‘3 Waters’ - water, wastewater and stormwater.

Two rounds of meetings were held during 2011 to explore community expectations for water services and talk about any issues currently experienced in community’s serviced by CODC water services.

Consultation Meeting - Series 1

These meetings focused on the reasons for developing the strategy, provided background information on each water scheme and asked each community to identify issues they had with water services.

Background information and summary of issues for each CODC water supply area can be viewed here:

Alexandra  Clyde  Omakau and Ophir  Cromwell  Patearoa  Naseby  Roxburgh

Consultation Meeting - Series 2

Follow up meetings were held to go back to each community and discuss what had happened since the first meeting -, the ‘quick fixes’, present options to address longer term issues that were identified at the first meetings answer questions that had been raised at the first meetings discuss water billing options (see below).

A second information sheets for each CODC water supply area can be viewed here:

Alexandra  Clyde  Omakau  Cromwell  Ranfurly  Patearoa  Naseby  Roxburgh

Water Billing

In response to the considerable interest in water billing at the first meeting, water billing was specifically discussed at the second round of meetings.

Water Billing Objectives
Nine overall priorities for water billing emerged from community comments at the round 1 meetings and also from Council discussions, previous reports on water demand, legislative requirements and administrative requirements.

Meeting attendees were asked to rank these from 1 (most important ) to 9 (least important). The 9 objectives for water billing in order of priority are:

1. Ensure water charges are fair and reasonable
2. Ensure charging is equitable and affordable
3. Minimise financial risk to the community
4. Avoid annual charge fluctuations
5. Be revenue neutral ( no profit or loss)
6. Bill all water users but make some provision to support community groups if needed
7. Reduce peak water demand
8. Be easy to implement and manage
9. Support maintenance of green space

Water Billing Models
Four different water billing models were also discussed. Attendees were also asked which of the four they preferred. In order of preference the billing models are:

1. Allocation Model – The total cost of producing water in each community is divided evenly over all connected properties. Once a ratepayer has used their share of the water they can pay for additional units through an ‘excess water charge’.
2. Electricity model – A ‘line charge’ covers the infrastructural component or ‘fixed costs’ of the water supply. All water is charged for per unit so users only pay for what they use.
3. Seasonal model – similar to the electricity model but the water charge varies with the season (i.e. different summer and winter use charges)
4. Tariff Model – similar to the electricity model but the water charge is set according to the use band that the connection falls into.