Valuing water: sustainable water services and the role of volumetric charging

This research shows that charging for metered water can significantly reduce a community’s water needs through both reduced consumption and leak detection, and ultimately defer the need for expensive upgrades. Further reductions are achievable though information campaigns that are tied to customers’ metered usage.

Key findings

• New Zealanders are one of the world’s highest per-capita water users. The 40% of Kiwis who don’t have metered water likely contribute to these high consumption statistics.
• Auckland has volumetric water charges and a per-capita use similar to the UK, Ireland and Switzerland. While Wellington  and Hamilton have unmetered water supply and residents  use over a third more water.
• When Kāpiti Coast District Council introduced water metering, 75% of its ratepayers ended up paying less than they would have under the previous fixed-charge system. While in Tauranga water metering decreased the average cost of water by 40% when compared with their projected cost increases.
• Water supply and security is a growing issue in many of New Zealand’s towns and cities. Key causes are poorly maintained assets (leaky pipes), population changes and climate change . On top of this, fresh water is a finite resource and only a certain amount can be taken from a stream or river before there are environmental consequences – so wastage through leaks and excessive household use could undermine social license for future water takes.
• Our recent research found that 72% of New Zealanders see volumetric charging as the fairest way to pay for mains water services; and volumetric charges can be progressive and reduce costs for many low-income ratepayers. Many local authorities that have introduced water meters set up working groups to specifically consider and address the equity issues around volumetric charging in their communities.