Southern Water Done Well

What is Southern Water Done Well? It’s our take on Local Water Done Well – the Coalition Government’s plan to address New Zealand’s long-standing water infrastructure challenges.

Southern Water Done Well takes a look at how we manage our water services – stormwater, wastewater and water supply (our tap water) and replaces the previous government’s Three Waters Reform proposals.

So how did we get here?

Simply put, it’s a combination of factors. Rising water services costs across the country, with aging infrastructure and historical underinvestment in asset renewals and maintenance have left us to consider our options. We can’t do nothing – we know that.

What does the Government expect from us?

They have set clear expectations in Local Water Done Well about addressing New Zealand’s long-standing water infrastructure challenges.

While the Government has set a tight timeframe, the legislation allows us to develop a model that works for our community and meets new regulations.

Where to from here?

While we mentioned our water services in the recent Long-term Plan consultation, this gives us a chance to really delve into how this can work for our district and our neighbouring districts – Gore, Waitaki and Clutha – who have come together with us to work as a team.

It’s clear we need to rethink how we deliver our water services. We recognise the delivery of our water services is a complex topic with significant long-term implications for our community.

We are looking at three options.

Option 1: A Jointly-owned Council Controlled Organisation
Option 2: A Stand-alone Council Controlled Organisation
Option 3: An in-house business unit.

What did we have to consider?

We’ve been working hard to identify the best option for the future delivery of water services by carefully considering:

• financial impact on ratepayers
• operational and capital efficiencies
• regulatory requirements
• cost-sharing across ratepayers
• and environmental, social, and cultural impacts.

Plus we have also thought heavily about asset values, debt levels, planned capital investments, which option positions us the best for regional government funding opportunities and what we will need to borrow to fund necessary infrastructure renewals and maintenance.

Now it's over to you – our consultation period is now open. The consultation document provides more detail on the proposal and more information is available in the links. Share your thoughts by 5.00pm 6 June.

Privacy Statement

All submissions (including your name and contact details) will be provided to Council staff for administration and analysing feedback, and to those who are involved in decision making on the consultation. This information, but not contact details, will be publicly available online. The body of your submission and any attachments will not be checked for personal information, and you should assume that anything included in these will be made public. For details on how we collect, store and use your personal information, including how to request a copy of any personal information we hold about you and to ask for any corrections, please see Central Otago District Council’s Privacy Policy or contact us. Please note: Council reserves the right to redact any offensive or derogatory language used in the written submissions received prior to making submissions public