Wellington City Council signal water shortages coming

Forums › Off topic › Wellington City Council signal water shortages coming - time to reconsider dishwashers?

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20141 posts

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#2951801 7-Aug-2022 18:34

Eva888: When it rains, I take the car out of the garage, throw a bucket of soapy water over it and leave it in the rain. Am always aware of wasting water.

Am irked at the thought of water meters as we already pay through our exorbitant rates. If they cut our rates then maybe it would be palatable since our rates have gone up a huge amount and still climbing. Plenty money for cycleways but none to fix our infrastructure and lay new pipes.

I moved into area with metering. You get an allocation each year covered by the water rates, and most houses should never go over that. So you should never have to pay for going over your quota. The problem is leaks. Even if you have a new house, their maybe undetected leaks, especially with outside pipes. Leaks are where much water is wasted. I think for most, water metering should not be feared if it is done in this way, and not sold off to an external company who wants to profit from water usage. IMO that is really the problem. The metering IMO should be more about preventing water being wasted due to lack of maintenance, or poor plumbing work.

wellygary

8312 posts

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#2951805 7-Aug-2022 19:02

Eva888: When it rains, I take the car out of the garage, throw a bucket of soapy water over it and leave it in the rain. Am always aware of wasting water.

Unless you are parked on the grass this is a bad idea, "drains to streams"

Eva888

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#2951814 7-Aug-2022 20:20

wellygary:
Eva888: When it rains, I take the car out of the garage, throw a bucket of soapy water over it and leave it in the rain. Am always aware of wasting water.

Unless you are parked on the grass this is a bad idea, "drains to streams"

I use a few squirts of dish wash liquid and park it on the road for the rain to do the rest. Why is that bad? I would think a car wash would use much more water.

Where we live the salt spray sticks to the glass and the wind adds dust so you can barely see out of the windows. I am forever needing to clean them.

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#2951816 7-Aug-2022 20:48

It sounds like double standards that cars can emit all sorts of pollutants which end up in the stormwater from the roads, but car cleaning detergent is seen as too toxic. Even the biodegradable stuff.

Geektastic

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#2951829 7-Aug-2022 23:27

mattwnz:

Eva888: When it rains, I take the car out of the garage, throw a bucket of soapy water over it and leave it in the rain. Am always aware of wasting water.

Am irked at the thought of water meters as we already pay through our exorbitant rates. If they cut our rates then maybe it would be palatable since our rates have gone up a huge amount and still climbing. Plenty money for cycleways but none to fix our infrastructure and lay new pipes.

I moved into area with metering. You get an allocation each year covered by the water rates, and most houses should never go over that. So you should never have to pay for going over your quota. The problem is leaks. Even if you have a new house, their maybe undetected leaks, especially with outside pipes. Leaks are where much water is wasted. I think for most, water metering should not be feared if it is done in this way, and not sold off to an external company who wants to profit from water usage. IMO that is really the problem. The metering IMO should be more about preventing water being wasted due to lack of maintenance, or poor plumbing work.

In the UK we had water meters. I could never see the objection. We paid for gas, electricity etc by meter - why not water?

(Note - councils have nothing to do with water and sewage in the UK)

mattwnz

20141 posts

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#2951831 7-Aug-2022 23:48

Geektastic:

In the UK we had water meters. I could never see the objection. We paid for gas, electricity etc by meter - why not water?

(Note - councils have nothing to do with water and sewage in the UK)

In NZ many people have large gardens they want to water, and over summer gardens gets very dry, so fry infact that plants and trees can die from lack of water. Although with urban intensification, garden sizes are dropping. I remember my parents had a very large garden, and often council workers went around during the evening checking houses using garden sprinkers, and giving our $500 fines to people who were using sprinklers at times they shouldn't be using them.

MikeAqua

7773 posts

Uber Geek

#2951861 8-Aug-2022 09:22

One good thing about Blenheim: Aquifers aplenty. The whole Northern Wairau Plain is floating on water. Properties have meters but, there are no charges for water. So ... unlimited, free freshwater. And, it's very nice water; cool and clear, with no discernable chlorine or minerallyness.

If the council got all controlling about freshwater, or started chlorinating it, or started charging for it, I'd put a bore in. The water is only 4m down at my place, maybe less, as I'm between two small rivers with unconfined aquifers. It's a permitted activity to draw 10,000L per day for domestic use! More than I'd ever need, for any imaginable purpose.

It's only a weekend's work with a block, tackle and spike to drill a shallow bore, too.

Mike

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Eva888

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#2951969 8-Aug-2022 10:23

MikeAqua:
One good thing about Blenheim: Aquifers aplenty. The whole Northern Wairau Plain is floating on water. Properties have meters but, there are no charges for water. So ... unlimited, free freshwater. And, it's very nice water; cool and clear, with no discernable chlorine or minerallyness.

If the council got all controlling about freshwater, or started chlorinating it, or started charging for it, I'd put a bore in. The water is only 4m down at my place, maybe less, as I'm between two small rivers with unconfined aquifers. It's a permitted activity to draw 10,000L per day for domestic use! More than I'd ever need, for any imaginable purpose.

It's only a weekend's work with a block, tackle and spike to drill a shallow bore, too.

That would be an attractive reason to move to Blenheim. Hot summers, plenty of water. The thought of ever running out of water is a very worrying prospect for everyone.

A dirty car is fine but not being able to water flowers and plants which are the lifeblood of birds bees and insects means we humans also risk survival.

This is a serious problem caused by decades of ignoring infrastructure by just doing the bare minimum of repairing leaks and not laying a full network of pipes that are quake proof. It’s not as if earthquakes are a new thing or that no one knew we have clay pipes that rupture in a quake.

There’s no shortage of rain in Wellington yet money is wasted on questionable projects that ratepayers don’t want. What we want is security for the basics not vanity projects.

JimmyH

2886 posts

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#2952063 8-Aug-2022 12:06

The Council here in Wellington really is spectacularly incompetent.

For years the basic infrastructure that should be it's bread and butter has been neglected. Known issues with pipes have been allowed to get worse and worse, huge potholes appearing in main roads (e.g., outside the Johnsonville library) and left unattended for months. There seems to have been no money set aside or planned maintenance for things that are essential.

Meanwhile the rates have been hiked relentlessly, causing real financial strain to strapped families, with huge sums being spent on vanity projects. A white elephant of a convention centre. Colossal budget blowouts on a refurbishment of the old town hall (now a multiple of the cost of just knocking it down and building a new one) that wasn't even needed (the perfectly good Michael Fowler Centre is literally next door). A fortune spent on cycle lanes that are for all intents unused (the proportion of Wellingtonians cycling to work has actually fallen after all this investment), removing needed car parks and destroying businesses who are the life blood of the city in the process.

The salaries shown earlier seem quite low for a city the size of Wellington, given the costs of engineers etc. I personally wouldn't mind if they were a bit higher, providing ratepayers actually got what they were paying for (i.e., competent administration). Surely it's getting to the point where the Govt has to sack the council and put in commissioners, as they did in Tauranga?

Eva888

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#2952091 8-Aug-2022 14:06

Council in Wellington are a law unto themselves, collectively patting themselves on the back for the rubbish decisions they make that are ruining many small businesses and making parking and getting around difficult for their rate payers. The ones they help most are Insurance companies who now have an excuse to raise premiums for areas Council pronounce as risky in some future time...maybe never.

Replacing water pipes is not going to happen in the short term. For us residents it seems we need to take matters into our own hands and organise holding tanks to collect our own water at least for the garden and other jobs. Maybe they can incentivise this by giving a discount on the exorbitant rates.

MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#2952093 8-Aug-2022 14:19

Eva888:

A dirty car is fine but not being able to water flowers and plants which are the lifeblood of birds bees and insects means we humans also risk survival.

A dirty car is never OK.

Mike

Eva888

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#2952104 8-Aug-2022 14:48

MikeAqua:
Eva888:

A dirty car is fine but not being able to water flowers and plants which are the lifeblood of birds bees and insects means we humans also risk survival.

A dirty car is never OK.

Agreed, but under the circumstances of no water, a clean car is not a prime necessity. Makes me irritated to think that all those Spring jobs we normally do, water-blasting etc will now likely be banned. I’ve put my car outside to be washed today, plenty wind and rain as good as a swirling car wash.

alasta

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#2952168 8-Aug-2022 15:39

JimmyH:

The salaries shown earlier seem quite low for a city the size of Wellington, given the costs of engineers etc. I personally wouldn't mind if they were a bit higher, providing ratepayers actually got what they were paying for (i.e., competent administration). Surely it's getting to the point where the Govt has to sack the council and put in commissioners, as they did in Tauranga?

I'm actually really surprised that this hasn't happened.

If you look at what happened with the Island Bay cycleway, they ignored public feedback, screwed up the original implementation, proposed four options for remediation which were all unsatisfactory, the mayor then subsequently scribbled his own plan on the back of an envelope, the budget blew out massively, half of the car parks on The Parade were lost, and the end result is still unsafe.

This fiasco is symptomatic of an underlying failure of organisational governance, which would seem like solid grounds for some sort of central government intervention.

lchiu7

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#2952183 8-Aug-2022 16:19

alasta:

JimmyH:

The salaries shown earlier seem quite low for a city the size of Wellington, given the costs of engineers etc. I personally wouldn't mind if they were a bit higher, providing ratepayers actually got what they were paying for (i.e., competent administration). Surely it's getting to the point where the Govt has to sack the council and put in commissioners, as they did in Tauranga?

I'm actually really surprised that this hasn't happened.

If you look at what happened with the Island Bay cycleway, they ignored public feedback, screwed up the original implementation, proposed four options for remediation which were all unsatisfactory, the mayor then subsequently scribbled his own plan on the back of an envelope, the budget blew out massively, half of the car parks on The Parade were lost, and the end result is still unsafe.

This fiasco is symptomatic of an underlying failure of organisational governance, which would seem like solid grounds for some sort of central government intervention.

Let's not fail to mention the draconian removal of 145 parking space on Thorndon Quay when the businesses there (and elsewhere) are struggline to attract patronage in these Covid times.

Local body elections are coming up. Time for people to be become more engaged in local politics.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

evilengineer

466 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2952199 8-Aug-2022 17:07

Geektastic:

In the UK we had water meters. I could never see the objection. We paid for gas, electricity etc by meter - why not water?

(Note - councils have nothing to do with water and sewage in the UK)

Probably the suspicion that they'd charging for the water separately but not reduce rates to take into account the removal of this component.

Obviously that would never happen. 😉

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