New national drinking water regulator confirmed
By Pattrick Smellie
July 31 (BusinessDesk) - A new central government regulator will take over responsibility for the nation's drinking
water supplies after gaps in the current system were exposed by the 2016 Havelock North drinking water contamination
that poisoned hundreds and caused four deaths.
The new regulations will require that all water suppliers "adopt a multi-barrier approach drinking water safety" which,
by implication, would include disinfectant systems such as water chlorination - a politically sensitive subject in some
parts of the country.
To drive home the point that drinking water standards must rise, a new Water Services Bill to be introduced to
Parliament shortly will remove the current legislation's "lesser requirement to take 'all practicable steps' to comply".
Local Government and Health Ministers Nanaia Mahuta and David Clark announced the long-signalled decision to create a
new regulator, which will extend drinking water regulation to a wide range of small-scale water suppliers. It will
exclude individual "self-suppliers" using tank or bore water or another freshwater source.
That change will create costs for a range of remote or standalone facilities, including marae and papakainga Maori
community housing, prisons, schools, campgrounds and isolated community water supply systems. Decisions on possible
funding assistance will be determined by the end of the year.
Cabinet papers released with today's announcement suggest those costs could be between $154 million and $409 million.
"This provides a strong reason for the five-year transition period for smaller suppliers," Mahuta's July 1 Cabinet paper
says, noting that water services have been subject to "historic under-investment".
The cost of drinking water upgrades for existing regulated entities is estimated at between $309 million and $574
million, while waste and stormwater upgrades are expected to range between $3 billion and $4.3 billion.
The changes effectively remove regional councils from responsibility for drinking water regulation. The Cabinet papers
indicate a strong likelihood that the new regulator will also gain some oversight of the other two of the so-called
'three waters' - drinking, storm and waste - when final decisions on the new regulating body are made around September.
They will include whether to create a new standalone regulator or to house its functions within an existing regulatory
agency, such as the Environmental Protection Authority.
"For too long, oversight of water has been split between a number of agencies and legislation and, as a result,
responsibility has been fractured and ineffective," Mahuta said in a statement.
The government is also in the process of writing a new National Environmental Standard for waste and stormwater
management, for which too little information has been collected in the past. The standard will include a requirement for
regional councils to report annually against nationally established environmental performance indicators for publication
by a central agency.
Three waters regulation also meshes with the government's separate 'Essential Freshwater' programme, which seeks a
holistic approach to the environmental regulation of all forms of fresh and salt water, and a new system for allocating
access to freshwater resources.
The latter will require a settlement of the long-standing and so far insoluble issue of how to recognise Maori rights
and interests in freshwater that the courts have established exist under the Treaty of Waitangi.
Mahuta's Cabinet paper notes that the government "does not have mandate within this term to address issues such as user
charging and royalties, which affects how far we can progress discussions about Maori rights and interests".
(BusinessDesk)