A new report on pricing and valuing water is recognising the huge long-term benefits of volumetric charging for both suppliers and customers, including Tauranga residents who have reduced their excess consumption.

Water New Zealand chief executive Gillian Blythe says the Te Waihanga New Zealand Infrastructure Commission report has confirmed that charging households for the water they use reduces water consumption and defers the need for costly new infrastructure and capital investment.

She says urban regions with meters have been shown to have significantly lower water losses than those without meters.

“As well, volumetric water charging is a fairer and more equitable way of charging for water and can reduce costs for low-income households," says Gillian.

“It provides a real incentive to fix leaking taps and not leave hoses running for hours.

“We all pay to get water to our homes and for our wastewater to be treated before being returned to the environment – whether the cost is hidden in rates bills or in a separate volumetric charge."

Gillian says Kiwis are amongst the world’s highest per capita users of water but the communities on volumetric charging, such as in Auckland, Tauranga and Kapiti, have reduced their excess consumption.

"For instance, unmetered residents in Wellington and Hamilton use a third more water than Aucklanders," says Gillian.

“Already more than half of New Zealanders pay for water through meters and in Tauranga it’s been estimated that volumetric charging has reduced household costs by 40 per cent compared to what they would otherwise have been paying.”

The report says that across the country nearly a quarter of all water that’s treated and distributed is lost to leakages and that puts more strain on source water supplies and the need to build expensive new dams, reservoirs or treatment facilities.

“Water is not an unlimited resource, and we need to be treating it with the care that it deserves and that means reducing wastage," says Gillian.

“We know that some councils are concerned about the cost of installing water meters, but this is more than offset by the long-term benefits.

“Well designed pricing sends signals to both consumers and water service providers to improve efficiencies and provides the information needed to make better use of existing resources.”