Water Meters

We have to use less water so there’s enough left in our rivers to keep them healthy as our population grows. They’re proven to cut use where they are installed.

All properties need to be metered so everyone can track how much they’re using. The meters would also indicate if there’s a leak or a backflow problem that needs fixing.

Eventually every home will be charged for the amount of water they use rather than the flat yearly charge they pay now. Households would be given time to track and cut their water use before metered charging begins.

There’s still work to be done before we nail down the costs for households. A key area is how we can support large and low-income households and the vulnerable. The flip-side is that smaller households, such as retirees or those living alone, could have lower costs than they do under the current fees structure.

No, we’d have a standard charge per unit used across the district.

We don’t charge for the water itself, we only cover the cost of treating it to make it safe to drink and paying for the pipes in the ground to deliver it to your homes.

No it is against the law to cut off water supplies for this reason. We’d work with anyone who was in difficulty to arrange a payment plan.

This is something that the landlord and tenant need to discuss and agree on within the tenancy agreement. This has nothing to do with council. More information can be found here . 

Properties with swimming pools are already required to be on a water meter with a backflow preventer installed, as required under our bylaw. This is known as an extraordinary supply and should already be charged volumetrically for their water supply.

For most people the meters will be free as NPDC will cover the cost. However, if a property owner currently shares a water supply pipe with other properties and would like to install a dedicated meter for themselves, the property owner will cover that cost.

We’re looking at about $15.5 million to meter the district’s water connections.

Savings would come from delaying other high-cost infrastructure projects due to lower demand.

Yes, but we’re still in the top-third of New Zealand cities for water use, and many European countries have a daily average use that is half of ours. Kiwi cities with some of the lowest daily averages also have water meters.

We’ve recently added two new reservoirs, but we all pay for these and they cost money to maintain too. We can’t keep on building reservoirs if we don’t look at how much we use and do more to save water.

We are, but the Resource Management Act aims to stop overconsumption of natural resources like water. If we applied for a consent to take water from a new source, we'd be more likely to
succeed if we showed we are good managers of the water we’re already using.

This work is always ongoing.

We reckon about two years.

This is something that we would review. 

Pool owners should already be on a meter so they’ll be paying for the water they use but we do ask them to consider whether they need to fill their pools.

If you toby is inside your private property, it will be removed and brought outside your boundary onto council land. 

No, our water charges only cover the costs of running our water networks. Councils aren’t allowed to create a profit from water.