Water supply company questioned

The efficiency of the company responsible for looking after the water supply in Queenstown was questioned yesterday by a councillor, who suggested the company was partly to blame for a budget blowout.

At a Queenstown Lakes District Council utilities committee meeting, Cr Vanessa van Uden spoke out about concerns the water and wastewater budget was likely to be exceeded by $1 million this financial year.

Three Waters manager Gerry Essenberg said Queenstown faced unique factors that increased the cost of maintenance, including an aging and more complex system.

The extra $1m was in the projects and maintainer budget and the team would look to trim that much off its renewal budget to balance the books. However, this increased the risk in the future and could lead to more expensive repairs, he said.

An example of this had been the failure of two pumps at the Two Mile station last month. The cables supplying power to the pumps were too small and had overheated, Mr Essenberg said.

"A couple thousand savings on power cables six years ago has led to more money now."

Cr van Uden said she had a "discomfort" with the contract with United Water, which was halfway through its three-year term.

The cost of repairs was well above the estimated price and United Water needed to provide assurances that it was doing the job efficiently, she said. "It does give me concern that we're 18 months into a contract and we've spent a lot of money."

Cr Cath Gilmour shared Cr van Uden's concerns about the budget overspend and said deferring renewal projects would only increase the "bow-wave" of future repairs.

The council decided to form a workshop to consider the renewal of the United Water contract.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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