Like me, I’m sure many of you were alarmed by revelations from Wellington Water of a flawed contracting system that resulted in significant overspending over multiple years. We became aware of the full picture last week when the new chief executive, and board chair Nick Leggett, laid it out in detail.
Some of the resulting media coverage, while accurate in broad strokes, exaggerated the extent and misrepresented the cause of the overspend. Wellington Water was not paying three times more than equivalent councils because of a poor contracting system alone. There were many contributors, most notably the age and decrepit state of the pipe network, demanding frequent maintenance work to keep leaks to a minimum and protect supply. We will continue to pay over the odds to maintain our network compared to others unless and until we install new pipes, and such a programme of asset replacement will take considerable resources and decades to complete.
Holding Wellington Water to account also means holding ourselves to account. As shareholders, we have made critical decisions about structure, funding and processes that have handicapped the company and its performance. Pointing fingers at individuals or blaming an organisation that the region collectively failed to properly equip for purpose doesn’t help anyone.
The solution in the short term is to fix internal systems and bring more competition to bear on the contracting system. That work is underway.
In the long term however, the answer lies in water reform. The proposed solution for the region will be put out for consultation shortly and we invite residents to have their say on whether the proposed model fits the bill or in what ways it can be improved. Your feedback is critical because, as we’ve found with Wellington Water, if we don’t get it established and funded properly at the outset, crises like the one we faced last week will happen again.
18 Mar 2025
