Pirongia’s Te Tahi Water Treatment Plant was damaged in the extreme weather event on St Valentine’s Day and was drained.
Waipā District Council has confirmed it will hand over water services to Waikato Waters.
The council adopted its transfer agreement at last week’s meeting.
In Waikato Waters – previously Waikato Waters Done Well – Waipā joins Matamata-Piako, Hauraki, Ōtorohanga, Waitomo, South Waikato and Taupō district councils. It brings together the water and wastewater services of six councils and provides shared services to Taupo from July this year.
Significantly in light of recent flooding, a stormwater arrangement has still to be sorted. Waikato Water has indicated it could also include stormwater from July 2027.
Establishment board chair Elena Trout and directors Jon Lamonte and Jaydene Kana are overseeing the largest grouping of councils forming a waters entity in the country.
Hamilton City and Waikato district have teamed up to form a water entity under the Iawai – Flowing Waters moniker. Chartered accountant Kana also chairs the Flowing Waters establishment board.
The organisations are publicly owned and council controlled.
Waikato Waters will manage about 140,000 connections and Flowing Waters 97,000. The formation of water entities is designed to make cumulative savings of hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years.
Waipā mayor Mike Pettit said, in a statement, joining Waikato Waters reflected the council’s responsibility to plan ahead as pressures on water infrastructure continued to grow.
“Across the country, councils are dealing with ageing pipes, rising costs, tighter regulations and more frequent extreme weather. Recent events have shown how quickly water services and communities can be affected,” he said.
The transfer agreement came as staff entered recovery mode following the Valentine’s Day storm and floods in Waipā and northern King Country.
Waipā’s acting general manager of business support Georgina Knapp said additional attention, intervention or decision making was required to stay on track because of the recent weather.
“Due to the level of damage across the district additional work will be required to understand the status of assets transferring, impact on the capital delivery programme in regard to phasing and any financial implications,” Knapp said.
She flagged an amber alert as the council moved into recovery mode from response mode. Amber indicates the programme is experiencing issues or emerging risks that could significantly affect timeframes if not actively managed.
“Emerging risks and programme pressures require active management. These are largely driven by compressed timeframes and complex interdependencies across workstreams,” she said. “Given council’s reliance on Waikato Waters Ltd to meet shared milestones, continued close collaboration and disciplined course correction by both parties is essential.”
Knapp’s comments came in the wake of significant storm damage at Pirongia’s Te Tahi Water Treatment Plant. It was taken out of operation, reducing water capacity across the district.
Pirongia’s water supply was strengthened last week with a new backup connection completed at the Frontier Road reservoir.
Group manager service delivery Eeva-Liisa Wright said in a statement that thanks to Waipā’s early planning and investment in water network, teams did not have to start from scratch.
“The infrastructure upgrades done in previous years meant we were ready to act. This new connection will act as a safety net. It gives us flexibility while we continue testing the system and working through recovery.”
Emergency restriction in Pirongia will remain in place until testing shows it is safe to bring the new connection into full operation.
“Any easing of restrictions will happen step by step once we’re confident the system can handle it,” Wright said.
In response to Pirongia councillor Clare St Pierre’s concerns that staff involved in disaster recovery might not have had time to apply for roles at Waikato Water, water transition team lead Kevan Scott said an extension had been granted.
Scott said South Waikato and Waitomo district councils, who are joining the organisation in the same tranche as Waipa, were on track to join in July.
The water services deal sets out the legal and governance framework for how services, infrastructure, assets and the workforce will move to the new council-controlled water organisation alongside other councils in the Waikato region.
Pettit said by working with those other councils, Waipā could share expertise, strengthen capability and manage costs more sustainably.
“This approach keeps ownership in community hands while giving us the scale needed to meet future challenges,” he said.
Pirongia’s Te Tahi Water Treatment Plant was damaged in the extreme weather event on St Valentine’s Day and was drained.
