A multi-year programme to improve water efficiency for Hamilton residents and drive financial savings through residential water metering has been announced by the region’s new council-owned water services company.
The Board of IAWAI, which will deliver water services to Hamilton City and Waikato District, confirmed a metering rollout plan over the next four years, starting with an extensive trial of systems and technology as part of a wider procurement process.
The trial is planned for 2027 with a multi-year rollout of meters in a project budgeted with a 15-year ‘whole of life” cost of around $155 million. The budget includes building the initial network and management systems to support metering, purchase and installation costs of the meters, as well as ongoing operation, billing and maintenance costs across 15 years.
IAWAI chief executive, Peter Winder says metering is the single biggest contributor to finding efficiencies in the future costs of water services.
“It boils down to this; the costs for households if we don’t start metering would be far greater than the costs to introduce them,” Mr Winder said.
“There’s a raft of benefits from metering, whether it be environmentally, culturally, financially, or simply because without significant conservation we will exceed the limits of our consents. We use around 50% more water per person than households in Tauranga – at this rate we will hit the limits of our consent to take water within the next 10 years.”
Mr Winder said metering in other parts of New Zealand and around the world has improved water conservation. Household usage has reduced by around 20% at peak demand times, which means existing assets and investment go further.
“If we don’t achieve these savings, we will need to bring forward new infrastructure investment of around $780 million across 30 years, some of which would be required within 10 years. These are unbudgeted costs which would drive household water bills higher. Metering will let us fend off these costs for longer,” he said.
An initial trial of metering for 200 households in Hamilton East provided valuable insight into options for the installation project but also revealed the benefits of metering data. Almost one-in-five properties had previously-unknown water leaks on their property – together allowing around five million litres of treated water to be wasted.
“If we want to maximise every dollar our communities put into treatment and supply, we need to identify this and fix it,” Mr Winder said.
“Metering will let us do that.”
Metering will also be a key part of IAWAI’s obligation to meet the requirements of Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato (the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River).
“Water metering is more than an infrastructure decision; it is a practical expression of our obligations as kaitiaki,” Mr Winder said.
