Councils plead for water assets certainty at first Cabinet meeting  

Whangārei needs to upgrade its old asbestos water pipes, but isn’t allowed to include the upgrades in its longterm planning. Hutt City can’t afford to renew water network assets, 30 percent of which are already at or beyond their nominal end-of-life.

Getting the Far North ‘s 24 water and wastewater treatment plants up to new safety standards is costed at $660 million – an eye-watering sum for one of the country’s poorest districts.