Ashburton District Council is yet to hear if its water services delivery plan will be approved by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).

The council submitted its stand-alone business unit plan for the future delivery of water services by the September 3 deadline, as part of the Government’s Water Done Well reforms.

Chief executive Hamish Riach said the council were yet to receive a response from the DIA.

A DIA spokesman said the council’s plan “is being reviewed”.

“We anticipate that all councils will have a decision by the end of November.”

Others have already had a decision. Waitaki District Council's standalone water services plan has been rejected by the DIA.

A statement from the council said it has been ordered to “reassess, amend and resubmit its Water Services Delivery Plan”.

“The letter also asks the Council to consider different scenarios including a different delivery model to the in-house option agreed by Council in July 2025.”

The council has been directed to carry out a full review of the district's water assets to amend its plan or face ministerial intervention.

The council has estimated the cost of carrying out the asset review was "likely to be in the millions of dollars".

The newly elected council will be required to make a decision about the next steps on resubmitting a new plan to meet the requirements of the DIA.

The district council submitted the stand alone plan in August after backing out of the Southern Waters partnership - a multi-council CCO of Central Otago, Clutha, and Gore district councils.

The same day Waitaki was announcing its rejection, Southern Waters was celebrating DIA approval to create the South Island's biggest joint council water company.

Waitaki was one of the six councils to receive a letter from the DIA prior to the submission deadline.

A DIA spokesman said the letters noted “their decisions to pursue stand-alone models, and the implications of these decision on the financial sustainability of water services”.

The spokesman said the letter to Waitaki, and the Stratford and Mackenzie councils, “stated the Department’s position that these councils would likely be better placed to address barriers to financial sustainability as part of the respective multi council arrangements they had been previously considering”.

Ashburton did not receive the letter from the DIA. When the Ashburton adopted the standalone in-house business unit model for its plan in August, Riach had told the councillors that a third-party consultant had reviewed the draft plan, giving him confidence that it was a strong proposal.

Selwyn’s standalone CCO, Selwyn Water Limited, was the first water services entity to be established under the Government’s Water Done Well legislation on July 1.

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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