Water supply to be extended to Waitahanui

9 June 2016

The green light has been given to extending the Taupō water supply to all 243 properties at Waitahanui.

Taupō District Council this week considered submissions to its 2016/17 Annual Plan and confirmed its plans to reticulate the lakeside community. It also agreed to build a reservoir on council owned land as part of the project.

Mayor David Trewavas said the project to extend the water supply to Waitahanui and Five Mile Bay had been included in the council's Long-Term Plan as the council had an obligation under the New Zealand Drinking-water standards to upgrade the current water supply to the 37 connected properties in Waitahanui.

The council had been successful in applying for a $1.942 million subsidy from the Ministry of Health to extend the water supply to all properties at Waitahanui but there was no subsidy for Five Mile Bay.

Earlier feedback from the communities about the cost of connecting and funding the remaining $1.033 million to complete the project was that the cost was too high when only spread across a small number of properties. There were also some residents who wanted to retain bore water.

In response, as part of its consultation on the annual plan, the council proposed withdrawing plans to extend the water to supply to Five Mile Bay, funding the remainder of the project across the wider Taupō water supply scheme and waiving any charge to those who had the ability to connect to the supply but opted not to.

The council confirmed all three of those decisions at the meeting this week and will review the waiving of the availability charge every three years, at the same time it reviews all its remissions policies during development of the Long-term Plan.

Mr Trewavas said the council had discussed the matter at length and the community had signalled they supported the project going ahead as long as there was no obligation to connect or pay the availability charge.

We've signalled that we need to have a district-wide conversation about how we fund our water services as part of the next Long-term Plan development. However, in the meantime we have an opportunity to take advantage of a $1.9 million subsidy from the Ministry of Health to ensure we can deliver quality drinking water to one of our communities, he said.

We also have an obligation to meet the Drinking-water Standards for New Zealand for council supplies across the district and this project will go some way to helping us achieve that. This decision is not necessarily about the here and now. It is about securing a quality water supply for future generations and future proofing for whatever development that may occur in the years to come.

ENDS

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Lisa Nairne Communications Manager 07 376 0762 027 839 8410
Vicki Waterhouse Communications Advisor 07 376 0718 027 484 2549
Taupō District Council
www.taupo.govt.nz