How will the new system work?Ka pēhea te āhua o te pūnaha hou?

Source: Department of Internal Affairs

There will be four publicly owned, multi-region entities with a singular focus on delivering safe, reliable and affordable water services to communities.

Each entity’s Regional Representative Group, made up of council and mana whenua representatives will set priorities for these entities and hold them to account. The water entities will have to directly consult with their customers, businesses and residents on their strategic direction, investment priorities and prices and charges.

Here in Hawke’s Bay, ownership of all the water infrastructure and networks that supply your drinking water, wastewater and storm water services will transfer from your council to a new entity, at the moment, called ‘Entity C’, shown here.

Ownership

The water services entities will be collectively owned by councils, meaning water services remain in public ownership.

Entity C will be owned by the 21 councils in the area shown on the map, on behalf of their communities.

Council ownership will be via a non-financial shareholding based on population, with at least one share for every council. Here in Hawke’s Bay, councils’ shareholdings in Entity C will be as shown below.

Ownership shareholding will not give direct influence over decision-making in the new entity.

Each new water services entity will be financially separate from councils.

Governance, representation and accountability

Source: Department of Internal Affairs

This diagram explains how the new entities will be structured and run. 

Responsibility for oversight and governance will be provided through a Regional Representative Group (RRG) that will have 12 to 14 members drawn 50/50 from councils and mana whenua. For the ‘Entity C’ RRG, there will be 6 to 7 council members representing the 21 councils in the entity’s service area and 6 to 7 mana whenua representatives representing all iwi across the East Coast of the North Island, the top of the South Island and the Chatham Islands. This means it is possible that Hawke’s Bay’s councils and mana whenua may have no direct representation on Entity C’s RRG. 

The RRG will be able to appoint Regional Advisory Panels (RAP) or committees, with equal representative from mana whenua and councils. The role of a RAP will be to provide advice to the Regional Representative Group (RRG) about how to perform or exercise its duties, functions, and powers. RAPs or committees will be able to feed more localised input to the RRG. All decisions made by the RRG and RAP must be made by consensus.

The RRG will be co-chaired by one council and one mana whenua representative, appointed by the RRG.

The RRG will appoint an Independent Selection Panel (ISP) to appoint the entity’s Board members and consider the findings of an annual review of board performance carried out by the ISP.

The water services entity will have a competency-based board of between 6 to 10 members who will oversee the day-to-day management of water services, oversee the maintenance and renewal of the water networks and infrastructure and make investment decisions.

The board will be accountable to the RRG and will need to provide a funding and pricing plan and an infrastructure strategy to them at least once every three years.

The board will need to have competence in the delivery of infrastructure and have an understanding of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, mātauranga Māori, tikanga Māori, and te ao Māori.

Mana whenua (including any individual, iwi or hapu or group of iwi or hapu) whose rohe or takiwā includes a fresh water body in the entity’s service area will be able to provide the entity with a Te Mana o te Wai statement for water services and the entity would need to provide a plan setting out how it would give effect to Te Mana o te Wai.

Here's more detail