Wellington’s water crisis highlights the need for councils' wasteful spending to be reeled in

Responding to news from Wellington Water that the Wellington region is losing the equivalent of 30 Olympic-sized pools in water every day due to decaying pipes, Taxpayers’ Union Head of Campaigns, Callum Purves said:

“Historical failure to invest in key infrastructure may have led to this current water catastrophe, but unfortunately, it’s still clear that Wellington councils collectively are more concerned with vanity projects than they are with providing essential services to their communities.

“Whether it be Hutt City Council’s $34.2m events centre, Wellington City Council’s Golden Mile fantasy, or Porirua City Council’s $98,000 ‘smiley face’ logo, it’s clear that councils across the region have been happy to put wants over needs in recent years at the cost of the ratepayer.

“While these councils may continue to proclaim that a lack of funds has resulted in this chronic underinvestment to their water infrastructure, it’s obvious that in other areas of their budgets, the money is not being well spent.

“If councils want to ensure that infrastructure failures like this don’t emerge in the future, then councillors need to take accountability for the current situation and look to ensure that the provision of essential services going forward is stabilised before embarking on any new pet projects."