Press Statement for immediate release 15 October 2009

‘WCC Water Decision Terrible’

Wellington City Council’s decision to consider water meters in the future is terrible, says Right to Water. The Council today agreed that metering will be introduced if Wellington householders don’t reduce their water usage.

“It's great that most councillors say they don't want metering to occur. It won't work anyway. But despite that, the council has succumbed to pressure from commercial interests by agreeing that water should be just another commodity,” said Right to Water spokesperson, Maria McMillan.

“As far as we can tell the council is taking at face value some statistics about the supposed savings meters would achieve provided by people who have an ideological commitment to putting a price tag on water,’ she said.

“Wellingtonians are quite moderate users of water. Residential water demand is relatively inelastic and charging people for the amount they use won’t actually make much difference to the bulk water needed for the city”. said Ms McMillan.

“It will however have a disastrous impact on economic well-being as people can’t help but use water. Budgeting services in Auckland, where people pay for water, are finding families really struggling to pay their water bills,” she said.

“And when there was a reduction in the amount of water people were using in Auckland, the water company simply put the price up,’ she said.

“WCC should reverse their decision and commit to upholding the human right to water. For water savings it should look closer at system leaks, and commercial and industrial water users, and leave families and householders alone,’ she said.

References

Report 1, WCC Strategy and Policy Committee Mtg, 15 October 2009, 'Water Conservation and Efficiency Plan': http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/meetings/committee/Strategy_and_ Policy/2009/15Oct0915/pdf/1_Water_Conservation_Plan.pdf

Radio NZ report on today's WCC meeting, 15 October 2009: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/10/15/1245cdd1d0d2

Water bills to rise 5.9% (Auckland), NZ Herald, 23 May 2009: http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10574113

ENDS

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