Media Release - Three Waters Reform Update

Kawerau District Council wishes to continue to keep communicating with the community about the Three Waters Reform. 
The Three Waters Reform proposes that the water assets currently managed by Kawerau District Council and the 66 other councils throughout New Zealand will be owned and operated by four large entities. 
In mid-August, Mayor Malcolm Campbell, Chief Executive Russell George and Manager Operations and Services Hanno van der Merwe attended another Three Waters Reform hui.
The meeting was for the 22 councils, which the Three Waters Reform proposes will become part of Entity B. 
The aim was to clarify the process and timelines, which were initially announced at the Local Government New Zealand conference recently. 
Kawerau District Council now understands that the timeframe up until 1 October is going to give our Council time to understand the proposal and how it affects us and our community. 
Kawerau District Council Chief Executive Russell George said “We aren’t expected to make any formal decision on the reform during this period. We are also using this time to carry out analysis to understand the potential of reform and how it will affect our community today and into the future.” 
To assist with this, we have commissioned an independent review, which is being completed by Wellington-based consultants Castalia Limited to assess:
•    The impacts of maintaining the Three Waters assets in its current community ownership, which are managed by Council; 
•    The impacts of Kawerau’s Three Waters assets under the control and ownership of the Government’s proposed Three Waters entities (Entity B).

Once we have this data and further information from the government’s Three Waters Reform, we will be scheduling consultation and sharing this information with our community. 
This is likely to be between October and December. 
Like many other Councils, we have concerns about the impacts of the Three Waters Reform on the community, the loss of local control, representation, impact on local contracting firms and protection against privatisation.

[ENDS] 
 


First posted: 

Monday, 30 August 2021 - 4:04pm