A more holistic approach to managing drinking water has been proposed for the Whakatāne District, to ensure that an integrated approach is taken to future investment and upgrading priorities.

A report received by the Whakatāne District Council’s Policy Committee last week indicated that the existing strategic documents focused on individual supply schemes, or combinations of schemes, rather than the District’s drinking water supply infrastructure as a whole.

Speaking to the report, Council Planning, Regulatory and Corporate Services General Manager David Bewley said the existing documentation provided a wealth of information about the state of the water supply infrastructure and the issues, risks and opportunities relating to the District’s 10 supply schemes.

“Those reticulation networks require continued investment to maintain the quality of the assets and improve the security of supply to consumers,” he said. “There are new challenges coming in the form of legislation and policy changes which will match water allocation rates and volumes to community need. That will mean that future resource consent applications will have to be based on established use and foreseeable demand. To prepare ourselves for those changes, Council should take an active leadership role in managing water supply priorities and a long-term, integrated approach to decision-making.”

Mr Bewley said the need for community involvement in infrastructure decisions was also increasing. “Our decisions are no longer just about engineering solutions – we also need to consider other values associated with water and competing demands for the resource. Greater attention needs to be paid to factoring community engagement into our planning, particularly with iwi and hapū.”

The key focuses of the District-wide approach will be:

• Security of water sources – managing supplies to reduce risk and increase resilience
• Treatment and storage – providing efficient and affordable treatment systems and increasing storage capacity to a minimum of 48 hours supply
• Distribution priorities – maintaining and replacing aging reticulation networks
• Efficient water management – identifying and preventing wastage and better demand management
• Reviewing levels of service – ensuring that water supply services are appropriate for community needs.

The Whakatāne District Council operates supply schemes serving the urban communities of Whakatāne and Ōhope, Edgecumbe, Te Teko, Matatā, Murupara, Waimana, and Te Mahoe, with further rural schemes supplying the Rangitāiki Plains area and Rūātoki. Scheme assets have an estimated value of $98 million and include 525 kilometres of pipelines, 35 reservoirs, nine treatment plants/headworks, and 15 pumping stations, supplying water to some 12,530 properties.