'Little bit grumpy': Rural residents shoulder water upgrade costs

Ten years on from the Havelock North water contamination crisis, the flow-on effects are now asserting themselves in Tasman.

Significant changes are on the verge of being implemented for two of the district's rural water supply schemes - including one which has been under a water boil notice for more than three decades.

However, locals are concerned about the cost of upgrading to a safer system.

New water regulations 

For decades, many residents in Eighty-Eight Valley and the Dovedale-Upper Moutere area have been hooked into their own dedicated networks.

Beginning as stock water schemes, they were initially subsidised by the government of the time and were run by their users, expanding until rising costs resulted in Tasman District Council stepping in to manage them.

While many urban areas are part of the "water club" which cross-subsidises drinking water infrastructure across the district, these two schemes remained largely ring-fenced, with upgrade costs sitting almost entirely with those connected.

But new national water regulations have been imposed across the country following the Havelock North water crisis, when the water supply was contaminated with campylobacter.

The contamination led to more than 5500 people falling ill and four people died of causes related to the outbreak.

Tougher regulations now require Tasman's rural schemes to be upgraded.

The schemes lack ultraviolet (UV) disinfection treatment to protect against protozoa - microscopic organisms that can cause illness if they are present in drinking water.

When will the schemes be upgraded?

The Eighty-Eight Valley scheme is expected to be compliant by July 2027.

Dovedale was "a bit more of a challenge", according to Tasman District Council's waters and waste manager Mike Schruer, and was expected to be upgraded by July 2028.

The scheme has been on a boil water notice for more than three decades, and its "filthy" Humphries Creek source was slated to be replaced by bores at the Motueka River.

However, that requires about 3.5 kilometres of extra pipework in addition to its protozoa treatment, which added to the project's $7 million budget.

James Stradling used to head Dovedale's currently-recessed water committee.

"I think most people think, for the quality of water we get, [the charges] are quite high," he said.

"People are keen to have cleaner water, but there's obviously costs that go with that."

There was a limit to what people could afford, and Stradling said he knew of a major agricultural user who had built a dam instead of continuing to pay increasing water costs to the council.

He acknowledged the upgrade requirements stemmed from national water regulations but stressed that any solution had to be "fit for purpose" and "managed sensibly".

"There's not a huge number of households and connections to carry that."

However, he said the upgrades also presented a never-before-seen opportunity for the area.

"It's in the interest of the community to have a reliable water supply that's clean and is less prone to severe restrictions."

In Eighty-Eight Valley, all users but three large farms at its end were being incorporated into the wider urban water club as part of a larger water upgrade for the Waimea Plains, cutting out the scheme's need to undergo its own costly treatment plant upgrade.

'A little bit grumpy'

Water committee member Andrew Fenemor said a past survey found that two thirds of the water use on the scheme was for non-potable users.

"We're all going to be receiving very highly - expensive - treated water, and two thirds of it doesn't really need to be treated… We're, I think, a little bit grumpy."

He said the users currently paying for many water units may not be able to afford to stay on the scheme, and that each user would be weighing up their options.

Being part of the water club meant access to subsidised water, but some might be tempted to install their own dam, bore, or rainwater tanks if it worked out to be cheaper.

"It's not an easy choice. There are costs either way."

In addition to the protozoa protection, being incorporated into Wakefield's water supply would improve the security of drinking water for those in Eighty-Eight Valley as well.

"Whether it's worth paying so much more money for treated water from a higher security supply, everyone will have a different opinion," Fenemor said.

Schruer said that both schemes were facing significant cost increases due to the mandated upgrades.

But with Eighty-Eight Valley joining the urban water club, and with the same result on the table for Dovedale, he said that while the water costs the users will pay will likely increase, it was expected to be a lesser increase than if the schemes remained separate.

The council had to "live with" the risk of people disconnecting from the schemes if costs climbed too high and leaving those who remain with higher costs, as it could not withdraw from low-use schemes.

While the lowest-cost whole-of-life solutions were being pursued, and infrastructure was being consolidated to reduce ongoing costs, Tasman's population was below the 500,000 figure that Schruer said was needed to truly make water services cost-effective.

"Anything less than that, it's always going to be expensive to supply water," Schruer said.