How water infrastructure enables improvement in economic, environmental, social and cultural outcomes

I have previously outlined the compelling case to build a community and disaster resilient Wellington and save $100m per annum (here,) how to improve economic outcomes (here) environmental outcomes (here), social outcomes (here) and cultural outcomes (here). I have also outlined how infrastructure enable improvement of economic, social, cultural and environment outcomes (here) and the more specifically how transport infrastructure enables improvement in economic, environmental, social and cultural outcomes (here)

This thought piece outlines how water infrastructure enables improvement in economic, environmental, social and cultural outcomes.

The objective is to lift all outcome scores to 80% by 2030. The current trends [1] indicate that capabilities and vulnerabilities are static or declining. The vulnerabilities are a lack of:

·         confidence in finding a job. Economic

·         helping in the community and feeling safe walking alone. Social

·         engaging in cultural activities. Cultural

·         confidence land is being used for optimal purpose. Environment

·         confidence in Council and Parliament. Governance 

·         connection with neighbours and preparation for a disaster. Disaster .

If the objective to lift all outcome scores to 80% by 2030 is achieved the benefits[2]  will be that people will have more confidence in finding a job, feel safer, be more engaged in their community, have greater trust in Council and Parliament and be more connected with neighbours and prepared for a disaster.

The options to improve economic, environmental, social and cultural outcomes are:

·         Survive: Improve economy through productivity; mitigate environmental impacts; improve delivery of social services being organised and targeted to people who need them, and improve cultural awareness

·         Revive: Improve economy through knowledge orientated products and services; mitigate environmental impacts plus adaptation with ‘critical’ environment projects; improve delivery of social services being well-organised and easier for people to find and use; and improve cultural knowledge.

·         Thrive: Improve economy though leveraging partnership between private and public leaders and the tertiary institutions; mitigate environmental impacts plus adaptation with ‘critical’ and ‘desirable’ environment projects; improve delivery of social services being led by the community, designed around people’s needs, and easy to access; and improve cultural application

Current state of Wellington water

Wellington City’s three-waters are fully integrated but only meet minimum to moderate standards with significant infrastructure age and condition and leakage challenges and are moderately optimised. Also:

·         Potable water meets health regulations.

·         Stormwater has high offsite disposal, and low onsite and recycle.

·         Wastewater has high offsite disposal and low recycle.

Future state of Wellington water

Before considering whether to maintain, upgrade or replace infrastructure consideration needs to be given to the options at network level.  A phased water solution needs to be delivered by public and private sector leaders with more commercial finance, less regulation and enabling government investment. The options in a predominantly urban area are to:

• Survive: Fully integrated with storm water high offsite/low onsite disposal and recycle; and wastewater high offsite disposal and low recycle; all at moderate standard and optimisation.

• Revive: Fully integrated with storm water moderate offsite/moderate onsite disposal and recycle; and wastewater moderate offsite disposal and moderate recycle; all at moderate standard and optimisation.

• Thrive: Fully integrated with storm water moderate offsite/moderate onsite disposal and recycle; and wastewater moderate offsite disposal and moderate recycle; all at high standard and optimisation.

Each of these options would transparently show the costs and benefits from an economic, environmental, social and cultural perspective for decision makers to identify the preferred option and way forward.

It is likely the preferred “public value” option is Thrive. To be affordable and achievable this will need to be phased starting with Survive for the first three years, then Revive for 3 years and then Thrive.

Therefore, a phased water solution needs to be delivered by public and private sector leaders with more commercial finance, less regulation and enabling government investment

This requires the Government to reprioritise its existing investment programme to initiatives that deliver, in the words of the Minister of Finance, “better bang for buck” and better public value.

In my next thought piece, I will outline how housing infrastructure enables improvement in economic, environmental, social and cultural outcomes and how the choices could be phased over 10 years to Survive, then Revive and then Thrive.

[1]These trends are based on data gathered each October since 2019 through a community survey which asks questions of residents based on the wellbeing indicators in the Governments Living Standards Framework here, which have been aligned to the Governments resilience areas here. A score trending less than 60% is a vulnerability and a score trending greater than 60% is a capability. Here is the Wellington suburb survey data showing the trend lines https://newlandrg.weebly.com/result-2019-2024.html

[2] Using the wellbeing indicators in the Governments Living Standards Framework and attaching monetary values to, from The Treasurys; CBAx data set.