Gillian Blythe: Water New Zealand Chief Executive, Local Water Done Well to cost $9 billion more than previously estimated

Costs to fix our water infrastructure are increasing as we get a better picture of its current state. 

Every council has now submitted their plan under the Government's Local Water Done Well programme.

As Newstalk ZB first revealed last week, the final bill is expected to be almost $48 billion - about $9 billion more than first thought.

Water New Zealand Chief Executive Gillian Blythe told Andrew Dickens with all the plans submitted, we've now got a better picture of water infrastructure than we ever have before.

She says it's like when you look at your own house and realise you've got to spend some money fixing a roof or painting a window.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So local water done well is going to cost nine
billion dollars more than previously estimated. The total investment will
come to forty seven point nine billion dollars. The local
government Minister Simon What says, this just shows that water
projects have been underfunded. They can't wait any longer. We
have to spend the money. So the Water New Zealand
Chief executive Officer is Gillian Blythe that she joins me

(00:21):
this morning. Good morning to you, Jillian, good morning. Why
is it blown out?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Why is it blown out? Because over the last two
to three decades across the country, councils have been trying
to juggle their many demands on their budgets and investment
and water infrastructure has not kept pace with what was required.
So they haven't been as enough renewals of the pets

(00:47):
and they haven't been as much required in terms of
looking out of the treatment plan. So it's brutal.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
So it's brutal evidence that we have had decades of
under investment in water infrastructure and eventually you have to
pay the bill.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
You're absolutely right that what what The challenge that was
provided to councils through this through this reform process was
to submit a water service delivery plan that would show
that they were financially sustainable, that they were going to
meet regulatory compliance, that they would be able to deliver
on the housing growth and the urban developments that were

(01:20):
required in their neighborhoods. And so that's what's seens across
you know, detailed you know, financials for the ten year period,
and then it's some extra information for the next thirty
that is seen from all councils providing what they need
to spend on the murals, what they need to spend
on growth, and what we need to across drinking water,

(01:42):
wastewater and stormwater.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Have you seen the plan and does it look good?
And will we notice a difference so all of.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
The plans, Well, let me just go. So you've got
sixty seven councils that have submitted I think the last
time I went and looked at the website, they were
about fifty four that are on the website. We've got
more visibility now about the state of water infrastructure than
we've had probably ever. We will be able. I mean,

(02:11):
I've got people that are doing analysis of the plans
at the moment such that you can you know, you'll
be able to say, you know, what's happening in the
lowest sept what's happening in the you know, the top
of the north, et cetera, to be able to look
at what's what's going to be required.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Okay, so look, the basic model is actually similar to
three waters, but it had a voluntary aspect of no
centralization and of course no co governance. And we were
always told that local water done well will be cheaper
than the big monster that was going to be three waters.
Can you compare the two Is it still cheaper than
three waters would have been, even though it has burned

(02:47):
out by nine billion dollars and the whole thing is
forty seven point nine billion.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I think, you know, as always is the case with this,
you know, you would be carefully comparing an apple with
an apple. Some of the figures that you saw under
the labor proposals, where you know, some of the big
headline figures were sort of one hundred and twenty one
hundred and eighty billion, but that was over thirty years.
This was over that. The figures of forties seven point
nine billion or forty eight billion are over the first

(03:13):
ten years. You know, we're going to want the wants
the you know, in some cases the nineteen council controlled
organizations sort have come together either a single councils or
multi councils that have come together, are rather than going
to be looking at what it means for those districts
as for the in house business units. So we're going
to discover what's actually required, and then we've got to

(03:34):
come together and see whether we can continue to find
more efficiencies and more ways of leveraging the strengths that
exists across different councils provisions.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
At the moment, Yeah, when I saw some articles and
some news wild back comparing the ten year plan versus
the thirty year plan and the forty seven point nine
million if you expand that over three and they started
looking at the cost of it all, and they started saying, well,
it looks like local water done well as going to
cost even more than three waters. But is that because
the infrastructure is more expensive.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
I think the more you you know, just in the
same way as you look at your own house, you know,
the more you look at it, the more you realize
that you've got to spend a bit of money on
you know, painting that window or fixing that roos. What
what's happened is that there has been a real focus
on ensuring regulatory compliants. We've got wastewater treatment plants across
the country, you know, many who are We've got trends

(04:28):
and duty that are council owned, many of which are
on expired consents and needing upgrades. And so once you
start looking at those sorts of things, you've got to
work out, you know, right, you know, is there amodular solution,
is there technologies?

Speaker 1 (04:44):
And all I get that, I get that it is
only going to get more and more expensive. And I
thank you so much for your time today. That is
the Water in New Zealand Chief executive Jillian Blythe. For
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