by frog
It’s nice to see over at Kiwiblog that David Farrar is continuing to profile up and coming Green candidates, Kevin Hague, Craig Carson, Mikaere Curtis and Virginia Horrocks. I’m looking forward to seeing what other gestures of cross party cooperation he is going to share with his reading public. Luckily he has promised another post on the same topic today. (Maybe we’ll need to put an authorisation statement on his blog soon!)
Interestingly the debate in the comments section over on Kiwiblog has turned into one about water charges. The Green Party’s current policy on water conservation is incredibly comprehensive. On water charges it reads:
To encourage New Zealanders to use the minimum amount of water consistent with ensuring good health, the Green Party will:
- Support councils to use water meters for each residence and commercial property, so that water use is monitored and recorded for educational purposes and promotion of water conservation and demand side management. This will be facilitated through the Ministry for the Environment’s Sustainable Communities programme.
- Allow councils to adopt a progressive charging system for water when deemed necessary. In such a system the first unit, which provides for commencement and continuation of water supply and reasonable personal consumption, will be funded from rating revenue and free of direct user charges, while additional units may incur progressively higher direct charges.
- Investigate the use of the Social Security System to provide support for water charges for those in large households on low incomes.
- Introduce a compulsory water conservation rating (similar to that used in Australia) on appliances that use water.
- Provide finance for local authorities to encourage home owners to install technical water saving measures in existing homes.
- Amend the building code to require installation of technical water saving measures in new houses.
- Set a National Policy Statement under the Resource Management Act that covers extraction of water.
- Require regional councils and unitary authorities to have integrated water catchment plans for all of their significant rivers, covering ‘in stream’ values, ground water, water quality, water habitats, extraction of water, and discharges to water.
- Allow regional councils to set charges for agricultural and industrial water use (except drinking water for stock), and use the revenue to fund their sustainable management function.
- Work with councils to develop community education programmes to encourage water conservation by all water users.
Some of those proposals are now becoming increasingly relevant given the impact of dairy conversion related irrigation on our rural farmlands (and especially Canterbury).
Published in Campaign | Environment & Resource Management by frog on Fri, April 18th, 2008
Tags: candidates, canterbury, Craig Carson, david farrar, irrigation, Kevin Hague, kiwiblog, Mikaere Curtis, Virginia Horrocks, water, water charges
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
In my little township in Canterbury we are having to replace our water supply system to meet government drinking water standards, at the cost of many hundreds of dollars per household per year for a very long time to come.
The question of water meters has been raised, and the council hydrologists looked very hard at this. Their conclusion was that meters don’t actually alter consumption, just change the charging balance between consumers, whilst adding an expensive overhead on the system. That overhead is just an additional charge on all consumers. Thus they suggested, and the community agreed, that we wouldn’t have water meters, the highly significant capital and ongoing costs of metering would be better spent on infrastructure that delivered water. And this is in Canterbury, remember, land of limited water.
Now the retard local councilors want to thrust water meters down our necks, against the advice of the experts in the field. And guess what – its Green Party policy too. Sharpen up guys; residential water meters are not the answer, they’re a waste of money.
Just to amplify here; water meters don’t change how much water people use except under extreme circumstances, such as when households need to make hard choices about whether to pay to for water or heating or petrol or food or the mortgage. Households not in this position just pay the bill, as they can afford to. If a household just pays the bill, then the aims of having a water meter are not met. So once again, it is the poorer in society who get hit hard, and those with a bit of dosh are unaffected. Thats called ‘divisive’ in my book, and not a good Green Party look.
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And yet what we face in North China is a desperate shortage of water not helped by the massive subsidisation of the cost of water. I’d be most upset if poorer families suffered from the cost of water, but industry (I’m looking at you, Fonterra, with all those production bases you have around Hebei) can afford to just waste water all they want. If we could strike a happy balance whereby families were actually properly encouraged to save water (reminds me: I have to go pay that bill today. It’s the grand total of 33.3 yuan (NZ$6?) for three months of water use. Told you it was cheap), yet weren’t suffering, and industry had to pay the full costs of what they use, perhaps the water shortage wouldn’t be so acute.
And don’t get me started on all those golf courses and skifields around Beijing….
So, I dunno, the Green policy on water looks more realistic than divisive to me.
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we give the spanish gold to farra for good reason fwog
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dbuckley, Did the council hydrologists look at 21st century meter technology or only at 19th century? Were they assessing the behavioural change from Point of Use/Real Time digital meter readouts or mechanical readouts hidden under a concrete slab somewhere in your front garden?
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hello wangbo..
it’s cool to hear from someone from/in china..
i travelled in your country (pre-tianenmen..)..
and was overwhelmed/changed by the experience..
and have felt a deep affection for your country/people since then..
any more insights you could provide into the environmental sins of fonterra in china would be welcomed..
cheers mate..!
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Kevyn: Type of meter not specified, but it will be of the traditional sort.
The proponents of water meters say the cost of water causes change of use. The community doesn’t see it that way.
As a community we’d rather our money was spent on delivery infrastructure than metering costs. The cost of metering is disproportionate, could represent over 15% of our water bills.
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hmm, I wonder if the community doesn’t see it that way or if they’re hiding from what they see.
The 15% added to cover metering costs would be fine if included in the usage charge as an added incentive to curb consumption but not if it was added onto the fixed charge as a monthly or annual meter “rental”.
The basic problem you have run into is the tragedy of the commons. The cost of piped treated water has been linked to rateable land value for so long that cost has been divorced from individual consumption in the collective mind. The fact that water meters can encourage the installation of low-flow shower or twin flush toilets in older homes isn’t popular because currently that waste of water is free in so far as it is not a cos to that individual household but to he community as a whole.
I personally don’t see any reason why water should be treated differently from other essential services such as roads and electricity.
Perhaps it will take common remote metering to make that happen. ie when gas, power and water meters networked and provide realtime demand and/or pricing information directly into the household. We are close to having that technology today.
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