Water
Water infrastructure can be broadly categorised into the reticulated systems that mainly serve New Zealand's urban areas (drinking water treatment and supply, wastewater collection and treatment, and stormwater) and the rural water systems used for agricultural irrigation.
Reticulated water infrastructure
Urban water infrastructure is the responsibility of local government and tends to be funded through local rates and development contributions, and in some cases, government subsidies. In some regions, particularly Auckland, council-controlled organisations charge for water services volumetrically, at a price that seeks to recover the operating and capital costs of the infrastructure.
Individual projects are too numerous to be listed here, but aggregate planned expenditure in this sector is set out below:
| National Capital Expenditure over 10 years | Total $M |
|---|---|
| Water Supply | 3,900 |
| Wastewater | 5,000 |
| Stormwater | 2,560 |
| Total | 11,460 |
Source: Department of Internal Affairs: Local Government Information Series 2009/18 - Information on Local Government Water Network Infrastructure
Rural irrigation infrastructure
Most rural irrigation and storage schemes, including those originally built by the Crown, are now developed, owned and operated on a commercial basis by the farmers, power companies and other shareholders who benefit directly from them. The following graph shows the level of planned additional irrigation investments:
- Figure 3: Estimated cumulative total hectares of land irrigated by schemes in New Zealand - existing and proposed (excludes private on farm irrigation not linked to a formal scheme)
- Sources: The Treasury
