Insight for Sunday 11 July 2010
The formation of Auckland's Supercity brings with it major changes for the region's most basic commodity - water.
A large, monopoly water company will takeover the eight existing council's supply operations just months after a short-lived warning that water restrictions might be needed next summer.
Auckland Issues Correspondent, Todd Niall, looks at how Watercare Services Limited will weigh-up the different water philiosophies of the outgoing eight local bodies, and whether it will continue the conservation drive by one of them, the self-styled Eco-City, Waitakere.
Is there a danger that the new water company will become too big and influential for it's owner, the Auckland Council, to control?
Photo:Wairoa Dam in the Hunua Ranges (source,Watercare Services)
Watercare supplies more than 370,000 cubic metres of water daily to Auckland from 10 dams, one river and one underground source.