The Waitaki District Council this week approved a Water Services Delivery Plan to increase water charges by 90% — from $1352 to $2566 — over two years as part of successive annual rates rises of 26% and 13% respectively.
Age Concern Otago chief executive Mike Williams said the costs would hit the district’s older people "especially hard".
"It’s quite a departure from the future rates increases [9.44%] initially signalled by the council in May, at a time when cost of living and financial security are areas of considerable concern for many older people in the region.
"I really think the proposed rates and water charge increases will hit older people in the Waitaki especially hard."
As part of the government’s Local Water Done Well reforms, councils throughout New Zealand must submit a Water Services Delivery Plan (WSDP) to the Department of Internal Affairs by Wednesday.
In July, the Waitaki District Council voted for an in-house business unit, rejecting three other options, including a joint council-controlled organisation (CCO) with the Central Otago, Clutha and Gore district councils.
The council had previously voted to go to public consultation, with the joint CCO listed as its preferred option.
Councillor Tim Blackler was the driving force behind that shift.
He told the ODT he felt the in-house option was still the right choice.
"The only way we can look at this reasonably and rationally is to keep focus on household costs and not rates in isolation.
"What hasn't been factored, is the future of our council by removing water and the standard overheads, which in some cases may be difficult to address and, therefore, offset any small but projected gains that might have been there.
"I'm not happy with what the outcome is for the householder in terms of cost ... but did we make the right call? With the information I've seen, yes, I still believe we have."
Mayor Gary Kircher said while there were issues with some modelling at the start of the process, it has been clear since October that there would be cost savings, through efficiencies in joining a joint venture.
"The clear message that we got from people in the industry, people experienced with amalgamations was that there are savings and the reasons that people hold up for the not being those efficiencies just don't hold water. So, that's created the base for quite a lot of people who think it's no worse keeping it in-house than, you know, and in some cases think it's better keeping it in-house. All of the details, information that we've got shows that that's not the case.
"We were expecting it to be pretty bad, but it's worse than expected."
Mr Kircher said efficiencies through a joint CCO would have meant the new rates spend of $276m over the next 10 years would have been reduced to about $220m.
The three Southern Water Done Well (SWDW) councils, minus Waitaki, yesterday formally signed off on their joint WSDP.
A SWDW report in July put water charges for the remaining councils involved for the SWDW and stand-alone options.—
• CODC: 2027-28 year water charges are about $2778 for the in-house option and $2706 for the joint CCO. By 2033-34, those charges are more than $4048 for the standalone option and $3830 for the joint CCO.
• Clutha: 2027-28 charges are $3484 rising to $3294 by 2033-34 in-house and $3375, then falling to $3114 in 2033-34 with the joint CCO.
• Gore: 2027-28 charges are $2655, rising to $4753 in-house, and $2589, rising to $4506 in 2033-34 with the joint CCO.
