I’m writing to tell you about an important change to the way water is governed by local councils and what you can do to keep local control of your water assets.

Under Local Water Done Well, the Coalition Government’s replacement for Labour’s Three Waters debacle, councils get to decide what to do with their water assets, which is as it should be. But they can also form new council-controlled organisations (CCOs) to govern the water assets and join up with other councils to have a CCO together, controlling the assets of multiple councils centrally.

This could be the right way to go for some councils, especially small ones with limited rating bases for large water projects. But it fairly quickly runs into some of the same issues as Labour’s Three Waters scheme, if at a lower level.

It might not be Invercargill’s water run from Christchurch or Nelson’s and Gisborne’s both run from Wellington, but a joint CCO means the person deciding what to do with your water issue could be two districts over and never have been to your area.

A joint CCO also runs into problems with democratic accountability. When voters are unhappy how water is run by a council that handles it directly, or when just the one council is shareholder in a CCO, we can make the councillors do something about it or vote new councillors in who will.

But what should you do if a joint CCO is doing a bad job in your district, but the others are getting service? How do your councillors force the CCO executives to get their act together?

It’s easy to imagine a mayor telling your local paper that they’ve tried, but there’s nothing they can do because they’re just one voice on the governance panel.

That democratic deficit is exactly why we’re calling for the decisions on forming CCOs to be held off until after the elections in October, so candidates and voters can have their say before they potentially lose local control of their water.

This is happening across the country, but as an example, let’s look at the Waitaki, Central Otago, Clutha, and Gore districts, which are consulting on forming a joint CCO together they’re calling Southern Water Done Well.

Can you imagine Gore, Waimate, Alexandra, and Balclutha all having the same number to call for a water problem?

What if someone out in Roxburgh, Glenavy, Edendale, or Clinton can’t get anywhere with the CCO and their local councillor, rather than making a fuss at a council meeting to persuade the majority from their bigger neighbour, now has to beg the CCO or get four councils on board to make a change.

It's one thing for the Local Water Done Well reform to offer this choice for councils, but that doesn’t mean just any CCO makes sense.

We don’t think this CCO will work, but whatever you think, if you live in these districts, we encourage you to have your say at:

• ‍Central Otago
  ‍
• ‍Clutha
  ‍
• ‍Gore
  ‍
• ‍Waitaki

Don’t wait – submissions close on Friday!

If you live elsewhere, it’s worth checking on what your council is up to. Don’t let the local water assets we rescued from Labour’s Three Waters get lost to unaccountable bureaucracy just because these are now local issues, instead of a national one.

Fieldays

For Fieldays this year (11-14 June), the Groundswell team will be back at the Rural Advocacy Hub, Site D70 in the Gallagher Building. Come along, meet the team, and see whether our balls will cause as much controversy this year as they did last time.

Thank you again for your support.

Kind regards,

Bryce, Laurie, Mel and the Team at Groundswell NZ

‍