South Waikato District Council statement

Issued: Thursday 1 July 2021

South Waikato District Council is looking closely at the information released by the Government on its Three Waters proposals, South Waikato Mayor Jenny Shattock said today.

“It is important that our Council thinks hard about what is best for our community for the long term – that is the priority,” she said. “We need to consider future water, wastewater and stormwater legislative requirements that will impact this change.

“South Waikato’s urban communities have good three waters infrastructure, particularly in the water supply and wastewater area. Our Council has already committed significant additional funding to infrastructure improvements over the coming years that is reflected in the previous and current LTP, adopted just yesterday to cover growth, quality and the impact on our environment.

“We have robust wastewater consents in place with Waikato Regional Council for the next 35 years and our water treatment processes are in line with the NZ Drinking Water Standards.”

Council’s Chief Executive, Ben Smit said that SWDC has a good handle on its three waters.

“Council has already committed necessary funding required for the future, has significant asset replacement reserves to fund future infrastructure and our debt levels are significantly less than our external investments so we actually have negative debt,” he said. “Opting in to the scheme will need careful consideration.”

“We are expecting further information on the projected costs to ratepayers under an opt in / opt out situation in the next few weeks and that will provide additional clarification,” said Mayor Shattock. “Councillors and staff will discuss the proposals over the coming weeks. We need good information to make good decisions.”

SWDC has been talking with our iwi partners on this subject and will continue to do so. Once we have formulated a view, we will be asking our community for their thoughts. ENDS, words 298