Our Long-Term Plan 2024-34 outlines our proposed projects and costs for Council water services over the next 10 years. The plan shows we're proposing to spend $900 million on water projects over this period.
The bulk of this (around half) is for our Nature Calls wastewater project, which is projected to cost up to $480 million. The Department of Internal Affairs has indicated costs for this project could reduce with upcoming government changes to wastewater treatment standards.
Other major projects include:
Doing everything we can to reduce the impact of large rainfall events for our city is essential. Over the coming decade, we will be doing more work on this front. This will include things like installing larger underground pipes, creating wetland type environments and maintaining our streams. We’ll also be working closely with developers to ensure new developments are well-designed to cope with more intense rainfall events in the future.
Our water comes from both the Turitea Dam in the Tararua Ranges and a number of bores around the city. New drinking water quality assurance rules will require us to add reservoirs or ultraviolet (UV) treatment to some of our bores.
As our city grows with more homes and businesses, we need to make sure we have enough water to meet demand. This will require us to install pipes to areas of development, pump stations to move the drinking or waste water around our city from homes and businesses, stormwater management for heavy rain, and in some instances we will need to build new water bores to supply growing areas like Milson and Kelvin Grove/Whakarongo.
We think these projects need to happen, and some are legally required.
If Option 1 or 2 is chosen, it would be up to the water organisation to determine the timing of this work.