Water poverty is challenging Northland's ability to handle future severe drought.
Tony Phipps talks about the region's drought resilience. Photo: Susan Botting/Local Democracy Reporting
Northland Regional Council general manager customer services and community resilience Tony Phipps said many households had "inadequate old, poor condition water infrastructure with insufficient storage volume and no water treatment".
"The (2019/2020) drought exposed significant water poverty, particularly amongst communities without public water supply schemes."
This was a human rights issue, he said.
Phipps said water poverty challenged Northlanders' basic human right to have enough water for basic hygiene and to do things like grow a vegetable garden for healthy eating.
He spoke about Northland water resilience to the region's Northland Forward Together meeting of the region's four councils' 42 elected representatives in Dargaville last week. He also addressed Kaipara District Council's November meeting.
Phipps said the region's high number of houses relying on home tanks for their water contributed to water poverty.
The severe drought had highlighted poor water quality and associated health risks for households from their lower grade water infrastructure.
Half of Northlanders did not get their water via council-reticulated piped water supply, rising to 70 percent in Kaipara and even higher for the region's almost 180 marae.
Phipps said 97 percent of Northland's marae were not on public water supplies.
"This affects water security and resilience."
The Northland figures compared with about only 15 percent not on public water supplies nationally.
Phipps said New Zealand households on average used about 180 litres per person of water a day, but Northland households on tank water had 40 to 50 litres per person of water per day during drought.
"A lot of our housing stock is older, smaller houses with smaller water tanks," Phipps said.
A typical 120sq/m house with a smaller water storage tank would need tank water delivery top-ups even in an average summer, with that situation far worse during the drought.
This had then been further amplified by family members returning home over Covid-19 lockdown, meaning more people in houses.
"Larger families in some of these older houses are going to need lots of water tank refills," Phipps said.
The drought had seen even those with enough tank supply to normally get by needing water brought in. This requirement was more pronounced for households with smaller tanks, therefore needing multiple tank refills.
The cost and affordability of tankered water supplies then became an issue.
Water poverty and its provision for vulnerable communities is among considerations of a new group formed after last summer's drought.
Community bores, water tanks and water treatment are being investigated for vulnerable communities, including Te Hapua and Te Kao near Cape Reinga in New Zealand's Far North.
"The drought exposed our region's lack of water resilience, inadequacies of water supplies and infrastructure and lack of bulk water storage," Phipps said.
He said a lack of clear responsibilities and responsibility for water resilience were among issues that emerged during the drought. This was along with a lack of funding and resources, particularly for the worst off communities.
Options considered
A Te Tai Tokerau water resilience working group is among options being considered for Northland's future water security and resilience, in the wake of last summer's severe drought.
This will be a collaborative group across central and local government and iwi.
Group membership will potentially include the Department of Internal Affairs, Te Puni Kōkiri, Ministry of Social Development, Northland Regional Council, Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group, Te Kahu o Taonui (wai group), Northland District Health Board, Northland Inc, Fire and Emergency New Zealand plus Far North, Kaipara and Whangarei District Councils' four waters advisory and wastewater groups.
Meanwhile, last summer's drought has left Northlanders worried about what's in store this summer.
Phipps said the region was not facing another drought for 2020/2021, with an average rainfall season expected as part of forecast La Nina conditions.
Heavy July rains had provided good natural water supply top-ups for the region.
"Recent rainfalls have raised rivers, (to) well above problem levels currently,"Phipps said.
Groundwater levels were also close to average.
He said Northland's good winter rain had been followed by a dry September. This had made people nervous, thinking drought was potentially looming once again, but October and November rainfall had been good.
Summer rainfall would likely be normal. There would still be spells without rain and some heavy downpours during this time, but the overall rainfall would be normal.
Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by RNZ, the News Publishers' Association and NZ On Air.