A leak in the Wellington CBD, January 2024. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Some water service contractors in Wellington are out of work, despite the number of fixes needed to the region's infrastructure.
Wellington Water chief executive Tonia Haskell told a regional water committee meeting on Friday that some renewal work had been removed from this year's programme, because Wellington City Council's water services budget was overspent last year.
"We've got local contracting families that are out of work at the moment because of the change in capital spend this year," Haskell said.
"There are three contractors that were impacted by that. Two of them have found work up Kāpiti Coast, and the third one we've got employed helping out our COG [Customer Operations Group] team as much as we can. But they are businesses that are currently looking for work."
Additional capital work would not kick in until July, but Haskell was confident the region would not lose the contractors because they were "loyal people".
Wellington Water was also in talks with private sector workers, including national industry body Master Plumbers, but was prioritising getting local contractors back into work, she said.
"We have had a lot of people, from a systems perspective right through to the plumbers, who are seeing if they can help with their side of the work. We've got two local businesses that are going to help us run a trial to see if in the space between the house and the public network there is room to work that doesn't increase the risk to the network."
Meanwhile, board chairperson Nick Leggett told the committee the organisation could not "sugarcoat" how much it could achieve with the amount of proposed long-term funding.
Hutt City Council, Porirua City Council, Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council have suggested a combined investment of $3.63 billion over the next decade for water infrastructure - about half [48 percent] of what Wellington Water has recommended
The region needed $30b of capital expenditure over the next 30 years to address known risks and deliver on the councils' strategic priorities, Leggett said, which Wellington Water had been "straight up" about.
"Until renewal funding reaches the level advised, the network will continue to age, we will continue to get more leaks and the cost to fix those leaks will continue to increase. We can't sugarcoat that."
However, he acknowledged the financial strain faced by councils and the recent increase in funding for water infrastructure.
The councils had proposed a combined $1.46b for operational works [about 84 percent of the recommended amount]. The proposed amount was "really positive", Leggett said, but would not be enough to address the pipe renewals backlog within the 30 year timeframe.