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A three waters industry body has found multiple problems across water service systems nationwide, including a failure to check if fire hydrants are working.
About half of the country's local water service providers - 33 of 64 - submitted data for Water New Zealand's 2021/2022 National Performance Review, which looked at drinking, waste and stormwater services.
The report found that while most suppliers agreed to provide certain water volumes and flows for firefighters, only four had actually tested all the hydrants in their area - the majority of authorities had checked none in line with the requirements outlined in the Firefighting Water Supplies Code of Practice.
Maintaining fire hydrants was the water supplier's responsibility, but an approved tester needed to ensure each hydrant was inspected and flushed every five years.
The report found regional differences in what was considered to be under the arm of Fire and Emergency New Zealand versus the local water authority.
"Waimakariri and Rotorua noted that they regularly flush hydrants, however inspections are not completed in line with the code," the report said.
"In Marlborough, it was reported that the council had not undertaken any hydrant testing, as this was carried out by FENZ.
"Tauranga noted that FENZ no longer undertakes tests in its district due to traffic management and compliance issues.
"Whanganui commented that FENZ only checks hydrants in response to call-outs, at which time it may test and report on several hydrants in the area of the call-out."
The review also found almost 20 percent of an estimated 550 million cubic metres of water supplied to networks was lost through leaks in the last financial year. Water use had increased by 4.2 percent.
Residentially, New Zealand districts averaged at 213 kilolitres of water per property per year, significantly higher than most Australian counterparts.
Water supply charges were hugely variable outside of main centres, the report said, with the highest ($1209 per year) over eight times more than the lowest ($244 per year).
"The median charge for a residential property using 200m3 of water in the 2021 fiscal year was $465, and $564 for wastewater.
"This would take a worker, working at the 2022 New Zealand minimum wage, a week and a half of work to pay. This is equivalent to 47% of the average residential electricity bill of $2194 per year."
Stormwater appeared to be the poor cousin of the sector, with overall expenditure only about a third of what was spent on supply and wastewater.
"One council stated it did not have in place a rating mechanism for stormwater, and several others were not able to clearly distinguish what proportion of rates collected was allocated to stormwater."
The report also found weaknesses in environmental regulation, with nearly 10 percent of wastewater treatment plants operating on expired consents.
"While all wastewater treatment plants have discharge consents, these are not all current," it said, noting most of the plants had lodged new applications to renew their consents.
However, not all wastewater overflows were consented, with no regulatory approach for managing wet-weather overflows in most of New Zealand.
Cyclone Gabrielle had underscored the importance of reliable services, the report said, noting they needed to be customer-focused, resource efficient, and resilient to effectively protect the environment and public health.
"Many regions in New Zealand are beginning to turn their attention to how we can build resilience in our infrastructure following cyclone Gabrielle. Considering our current and desired future state for each of these outcome areas will be critically important."
Following the establishment of the Water Services Act 2021, future reporting on the state of water services would be covered by Taumata Arowai, the drinking water regulator, and a yet-to-be-established economic regulation and consumer protection body, Water New Zealand said.
