What Is 3 Waters?
3 Waters is the name of a policy that’s currently under development and pertains to the following 3 water services: Stormwater, Sewerage and Drinking water.
The aim of the 3 waters policy is to privatize the 3 water services into a 50% owned Maori entity, though it is unclear which of the many Iwi’s will be chosen.
Controversy Around 3 Waters
Racism aside (it’s racist to make government policy targeting specific races, especially when it’s not to fix a problem of a disadvantage to a particular group), there is a lot of controversy in this policy. Not least selecting who will benefit (which Iwi or specific people in the Iwi) will be gifted this new business, but also because there are no specific skills or experience in those groups / people to deal with this critical infrastructure - an Iwi is neither an established infrastructure company nor an engineering company, nor is it a water testing laboratory.
Firstly it’s an inappropriate choice of a thing to privatize - because water services are essential for human existence and therefore not something that should be managed by the free market due to risk of failure. This is a fundamental tenet in the need for a government.
Secondly the proposed solution is inoperable with council services - for example, if a private citizen (or public entity) wishes to develop some land, then they will have to get the council to allow the development. Traditionally this process involves assessing water flow and provision water flow over the land. Water flow may be controlled through pipes or more often, through the lay of the land. Allocating power to a private entity will complicate this process and create disputes over who is responsible (the council for the lay of the land or the private party for the pipes). This will result in the delay or lack of provision of land for development and increase costs.
For the same reason, this could cause flooding problems to not be fixed. For example, say flooding happens, the council demand that the newly established private entity pipes the water correctly and refuses to spend money on it; the private entity states that it’s the responsibility of the council to ensure that there are natural waterways to prevent flooding and refuses to spend money on it. Consequently the flooding never gets fixed.
It’s my understanding that Nanaia Mahuta has been heavily involved in pushing the 3 Waters policy. There are reports of corruption that also need to be investigated1 when I have more time.
In 2023, this policy was put on hold.