Wellington needs ring-fenced funding for water to fix failing pipes - Mayor Andy Foster

From Morning Report, 7:47 am on 11 December 2020

A new report has confirmed Wellington's water infrastructure is falling apart after decades of neglect.

It comes after frequent pipe disasters sent millions of litres of sewage into the harbour, closing inner-city roads and requiring emergency truck transport for the city's sewerage sludge.

The city has recorded a total of 2096 sewage spills in the past 12 months.

A mayoral taskforce has concluded the current approach is failing, with up to 60 percent of pipelines need to be replaced within 30 years.

Wellington mayor Andy Foster told Morning Report the funding for water infrastructure needs to be ring-fenced to ensure the problem gets fixed.

"We're basically saying we need to ring-fence that funding, whether that is within the council or within Wellington Water, or any other entity that the government set up in the near future."

Metering is one of the suggested funding, which would see control of the pipes and collecting the money for fixing them handed to Wellington Water. 

Foster said it would have some benefits.

"We can incentivize people to use water more carefully if they have a leak and we've had a lot of examples given to us of places where it's worked very well."