Daily review 25/05/2026

3 comments on “Daily review 25/05/2026”

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    Water for us. Water in Wellington particularly – has this been covered here already? Bit of a chocolate scramble (more expensive than lollies!)

    https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=180303 Raising red flags about costly water meters

    May 24, 2026 40 comments

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    by Ben McNulty

    …So far the introduction of Tiaki Wai to Wellingtonians has been the promise of $6,000 water bills and now over half a billion to install water meters. Whilst the water bill by in-large reflects the reality of decades of underinvestment, water meters are a different story.

    Wellington Water have steadfastly prohibited access to private plumbers on the water network despite organisations like Master Plumbers having a better qualified workforce. It’s little surprise that consecutive reports have demonstrated the lack of value for money that has resulted from this approach.

    When private plumbers are raising major concerns about the costs of water meters and coming with literal receipts showing they can do the work for thousands of dollars cheaper than what initially Wellington Water and now Tiaki Wai are advising, it should raise the biggest of red flags…

    …There has been an insistence on rolling out smart meters and Tiaki Wai owning water meter infrastructure.

    This approach seems to be driving us towards an over-engineered solution that aims for perfection instead of what’s simply good enough…

    Time to play the Monorail Song from the Simpsons – rings a bell ding-dong – citizens being sold a junk idea which in our NZ case will leak water as well as money. Sounds profitable for someone.

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