Martin Luther King once said: 'Our lives begin to end the day we stay silent about things that matter.” And what the government proposes to do with our Three Waters infrastructure certainly matters.

The Three Waters - involving the delivery of drinking water and the disposal of wastewater and storm water - we take for granted. All are of fundamental importance to our community. Traditionally ratepayers have paid for these assets.

Now we have the biggest reform proposal that any central government has ever proposed for local government, and there are serious flaws that are just being glossed over by the government.

Local authorities currently own 100 per cent of the Three Waters assets but, if what the government proposes goes ahead, they will have only 50 per cent of the oversight of the proposed boards and no effective ownership at all.

Ratepayers have paid for the Three Waters assets but will have no meaningful say over their future. Half of the boards controlling them will be appointed by iwi – which have contributed nothing to their funding. The government's excuse for this confiscation is that it's needed to improve water quality: they point to the unfortunate incident in Hastings some years ago. But this is an exceedingly flimsy basis for what is proposed, especially when Hastings has spent about $80 million upgrading their systems.

Margaret Murray-Benge, Bethlehem.