Rain or shine, our water services team and their contractors are busy keeping drinking water, wastewater and stormwater networks running smoothly.

This week’s Three Waters Committee agenda offers a snapshot of that work and provided an update on 18 drinking water projects undertaken in 2025-26, 13 wastewater projects and one for stormwater.

I know it can be disruptive when contractors are working on your street, digging up the road and replacing old sewer pipes or water pipes, but it is essential work – and renewing pipes or parts of the infrastructure ensures it is safe and reliable.

One piece of work that will help Council meet drinking water compliance is happening on the Montalto community supply. This is a small supply that started out life as a stockwater source, but now also supplies some households – that means the supply must be as compliant as our new water treatment plants at Methven and Mt Somers.

Achieving that level of compliance for a small rural scheme will potentially cost significant amounts of money for a very small number of households, so Council is working with the national water regulator Taumata Arowai to find an acceptable solution. That solution could be one of the three in-home water treatment systems we are trialling at the moment, so we’ll keep you posted on the results.

Councillors had the chance this week to visit some of our three waters facilities, including the wastewater treatment plant at Wilkins Road and Ocean Farm, where the treated wastewater is irrigated onto land at Ashton.

Just over $5 million is tagged in the 2026-27 Annual Plan to improve the irrigation system at Ocean Farm, so that it sprays the treated wastewater evenly, to meet consent conditions.

The list of three waters work for the next financial year is also long and includes 31 drinking water projects, 22 wastewater projects and two for stormwater. Most of the drinking water projects are watermain renewals in our urban areas, though money is also tagged for the installation of water meters and for a new watermain on the second Ashburton bridge.

The wastewater projects are also mainly renewals, alongside the work at Ocean Farm and a strategy to improve wastewater operations on the Tinwald network, which gets inundated with groundwater during high rainfall events.

The district’s longer-term plans for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater are contained in the Water Services Delivery Plan, an important document that every council in the country must submit for Government approval to show their commitment to providing clean drinking water and dealing responsibly with wastewater.