Auckland's water and wastewater prices will increase 9.5 percent later this year.
This increase follows the price path approved by Watercare's board of directors in December 2020 and is included in Auckland Council's long-term plan, which was formally adopted in June 2021.
Water and wastewater service charges will increase by 9.5 percent on July 1, 2023, while infrastructure growth charges will rise by 8 percent. The price for 1000 litres of water will go from $1.825 to $1.998, while 1000 litres of wastewater will go from $3.174 to $3.476. The fixed wastewater charge will go from $264 a year to $289.
Watercare chief executive Dave Chambers said since the board approved the price path in 2020, they've faced significant challenges, including inflation and extreme weather events. Although he added Watercare knows people are facing financial strain, so it's important to them to keep price increases as low as possible, which is why they're sticking with the original price path.
Chambers said households with average water use will pay about $2.20 more per week, but he encourages customers to get in touch if they're struggling to pay their bills to work out a plan.
"Over the past year, we've focused heavily on reducing our controllable costs. Without this work, we would have been looking at a price increase of 10.7 percent, so it's thanks to this drive to find efficiencies that we can keep the increase to 9.5 percent," Chambers said.
"One of the ways we've made savings is by reducing our overall headcount through attrition. We've gone from having 1255 full-time equivalent staff in June 2022, to 1198 in January 2023."
In terms of what the money is spent on, a recent review of Watercare's asset management plan identified a forecast capital expenditure increase of $3.6 billion over the next 10 years.
"This takes our forecast capital expenditure to more than $13 billion over the next 10 years. To fund this, we'll need to increase the amount we borrow," Chambers said.
"In the next financial year alone we'll be spending more than $1 billion on infrastructure projects that cater for growth, replace ageing assets and deliver better outcomes for the environment.
"These include completing a new 45-million-litre water storage reservoir at Redoubt Road, which significantly boosts our water supply resilience, and continuing to tunnel our Central Interceptor wastewater pipe between central Auckland and our Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant."
