FUTURE WATER SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 261, 31 July 1929, Page 12

FUTURE WATER SUPPLY

BASIS OF ADMINISTRATION A QUESTION OF POWER

(By

H.P.)

At the meeting of the Wellington City and Suburban Water Board last week, some attention was focused on the matter of administration of the water supply of the future for Wellington and the surrounding boroughs. Several speakers expressed the opinion that to make a success of the new water supply scheme, the local bodies concerned must be prepared to “pool all their resources.” In other words, each and every body concerned must be prepared to take their full supplies of water from the new source. So far neither the Water Board nor the City Council has formally approved the new scheme, as recommended in the city engineer’s report, but from the manner of the reception of the report there seems to be little doubt that the recommendations will ultimately be adopted. This means a water supply from the Hutt River for Wellington and the whole of the Hutt Valley by the year 1934. “Pooling all their resources” means that any local authority concerned must be prepared to abandon its present water supply scheme in favour of the new and larger one. It is possible that this might be very convenient, and even necessary. In the boroughs in the Hutt Valley and in Eastbourne there is a growing demand for better services than exist at the present time. But whilst the chairman ; (Mr. G. A. Troup), with others, was insistent on “the pooling of resources,” will that mean that in 1934—when the Hutt River scheme may be completed—the city, Wainui, and Orongorongo water resources will be abandoned? In short, does the “pooling of all resources,” as extended to the smaller local bodies, extend to the city? Nearly a million sterling has been spent in harnessing the waters of the Wainui and in storage reservoirs, so that it is scarcely conceivable that what may apply to Petone and the Lower Hutt Boroughs is to apply to the city. Another momentous question arises out of such considerations. The Water Board, as at present constituted, is merely an advisory body. It has no powers whatsoever, that cannot be overridden by the City Council, for the Government has vested the big water- , shed area of land at the Akatarawa in the Wellington City Corporation, and not in the Water Board. Now comes the scheme by which all parties are to benefit. The proposed new scheme is to cost £566,000. Who is to pay for it?. Naturally the bodies concerned, but how? As matters are at present, the Wellington City Corporation, as the holders of the asset, is the only body with power to raise the loan and to impose taxation, but the City Council can only tax its own ratepayers, and not those of other local bodies. Even if the local bodies agree to tax themselves according to some given allocation, it is conceivable that the whole business may be upset by one or more bodies refusing to commit themselves to the expenditure involved. To put it another way: Are the local bodies round Wellington willing to place themselves for all time in the hands of the dominating body—the Wellington City Corporation—as far as their water supplies are concerned? And again, is this water supply scheme, which appears to be such a sound one, to be jeopardised by the contingency of a breakaway on the part of one or more of the local bodies? Is it not too valuable a scheme for everyone concerned to be left exposed to this risk? At' the last meeting, Mr. D. McKenzie, Mayor of Petone, wished to know how much it was proposed to charge per 1000 gallons for water under the new scheme. The answer was that no one could say until they knew how much water each of the local bodies was likely to require. Assuming that information is forthcoming, and' Petone is asked to pay double what her present water supply costs, is there anything to prevent that body dropping out of the scheme, let us say, through sheer economic necessity? This is a contingency to be considered, and in the opinion of some, can only be , av&ided by creating a Water Board with a legal and economic entity of its own—a board that will control the whole of the water resources and supply within the area circumscribed by "the mountains which surround the city and flank the Hutt Valley. Such a board would have to be vested with powers of taxation, and would call upon the local bodies for their subsidies annually in the same manner as the Hospital Board does at present, and each local body would have representation upon it. This would mean the necessity for the promotion of legislation to vest the watershed lands in the board, but in view of its constitution, that would not mean anything more than a book entry. The suggestion that the Water Board might be made a real body with administrative powers instead of being an advisory one. is not made loosely. Already there have been instances where the whole of the members of the board have not seen eye to eye in the matter of finance, apd the well-intentioned action of a majority has been blocked before a Parliamentary Committee because of these disagreements. Such a position would scarcely be possible had the board an entity of its own, instead of being very largely a “dummy” board. It would not be surprising if this question were raised at a future meeting of the board, in view of the desire in some quar ters for a greater amount of independence. Water boards exist in most large 1 cities, independent of the central local authority.