Each week, we’re going to be looking at a couple of items that we’re consulting on with our community from this year’s Long-term Plan, and unpacking the topics:

Volumetric water charges 

The water bill you currently receive from Council includes a usage (volumetric) charge and your rates bill includes a fixed water connection charge. In the consultation, we ask whether the fixed charge should be reduced in favour of increasing the usage charge (from the current 60 cents per cubic metre).

Volumetric charging was introduced in Central Otago in 2012 to address high water consumption. This achieved a 30 per cent reduction in water consumption. Apart from the obvious aim – to encourage people to use less water – it did mean that we avoided a big spend on having to invest in more infrastructure to cope with the capacity.

However, the volumetric rate has not been adjusted for many years, while the fixed annual charge has continued to increase.

In 2024, the fixed annual charge was $756.45 for every property connected to the water network and under the current system this will increase to $843.54 per property in 2025.

Over the past 12 years, water consumption on some properties has increased significantly, with 8 per cent of connections now consuming 43 per cent of the water. This means 92 per cent of the users are subsidising the heavy users through high fixed charges. 

Half of the water users in Central Otago use 224 cubic metres of water or less per annum, with the average consumption being 325 cubic metres. The really high users are consuming over 700 cubic metres per annum. While those who use more will pay more under the proposed charges, they also have the option of using less water and paying less. 

By achieving a reduction in water use we will optimise the life of the infrastructure we have instead of prematurely replacing it to provide for increased capacity. 

There have been a few online comments around "greed" on this one - so to clarify, revenue collected for water services is "ring fenced" - it can only be spent on water services not anything else council undertakes.