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Universal Water Meters

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Before universal water metering can be implemented, we must first install new manifolds (also known as tobies) to properties. This stage of the project will be starting in April 2024 and is expected to be completed in March 2025.

This work involves Council contractors removing old manifolds and replacing them with a new one at properties across Stratford.

What to expect when these are installed:

  • You'll receive a letter from us in advance of the work being completed at your property letting you know the date and estimated time of work.
  • Water to your property will need to be turned off while installing the new manifold. This will be off for up to 3 hours.
  • Contractors will knock on your door to let you know they will turn your water off. You don't need to be home when this happens.
  • Sections of footpaths will be closed while the work is underway. We appreciate everyone's cooperation and patience as contractors get the work done.
  • Any digging in the area will be backfilled and reinstated on completion of the installation.
  • When your water is turned back on, there might be air or some residue in the pipe. This is normal and the tap should be left open for a short time until any air/residue subsides.

Universal Water Metering has already been successfully implemented across our Midhirst and Toko water supplies. A number of leaks were able to be identified as part of this project, resulting in significant water saving for these supplies.

Other Councils have also seen huge savings in water consumption with the roll out of universal water metering. This Radio New Zealand articles highlights a success story in the New Plymouth District

We're excited to see the impact this project will have on our Stratford water supply over the coming years.

Background

Water supplied by Council is currently charged as a fixed annual cost to all connected properties with only a small number of extraordinary users (such as commercial and lifestyle blocks) being charged by volume.

As part of the Long Term Plan 2021-31 Council consulted with the community on rolling out Universal Water Metering. Council believes the way we currently charge for water is unfair to low users and provides no incentive to reduce demand for high users. Introducing Universal Water Metering, which means people are charged for the water they use, is the best and fairest way forward to reduce demand and conserve our natural resource.

Water conservation is the best thing we can do to ensure the health of our rivers and the environment.

While processing less water will naturally save the community money, through the introduction of a user pays system, those who use the most will pay the most. This creates an incentive for higher users to reduce their demand which will allow us to stay within the capacity of our current water sources and treatment plants for much longer. This would mean new water sources won’t have to be found and new treatment plants built (or current ones upgraded).

Our current resource consents to take water from the environment also require us to demonstrate that this water is used efficiently.

Given our consumption patterns, and without metering, it is hard to demonstrate efficiency. It is therefore likely that metering would become a consent condition in the future, or we may struggle to get a new consent.

The key benefits in implementing universal water metering include:

  • A fairer user pays system
  • Improving awareness of peoples’ water use and their approach to water efficiency. Nationally, statistics suggests that metering reduces water consumption by approximately 20%.
  • Identifying water losses, particularly within private properties
  • Allows for extra water supply for distribution
  • Reduction in water treatment and associated costs
  • Create capacity for commercial and residential growth without incurring significant upgrade costs at water takes, treatment plants and throughout the reticulation
  • High achievement of resource consent compliance
  • Help to reduce peak demand during summer months when water resources are most stretched.

FAQs

Manifold installation

They are the connection between your water pipes and the council’s water supply. These have valves on them so water can be shut off if needed, and it makes it easy to check that water is flowing in the right direction. They also allow for water meters to be installed. These are contained in the little blue boxes that you can see around town.

To move to an electronic metering system, we need to upgrade the tobies to be compatible with the digital technology.

Modernising the way we track our water consumption with digital meter readers allows for automated readings, improved tracking and billing, customer usage visibility, and reduced water loss through leak detection.

All properties need to be metered so everyone can track how much they’re using. The meters would also indicate if there’s a leak or a backflow problem that needs fixing.

The costs associated with the manifold installations for Stratford have already been accounted for in our budgets (under our Long-Term Plan 2021-31) so there’s no further impact on ratepayers. The introduction of metered charging should be a fairer system of charging for the community and you’ll get the chance to have your say when we’re closer to introducing this.

Yes, every property will have its own smart water meter. This means residents will be able to track their own water usage and we can identify sneaky leaks in the network that have previously gone unnoticed. If a property or properties are difficult to meter separately, we may first install a single meter but will come back once all the easy ones are done and come up with a solution for the tricky ones.

When it comes to upgrading our water supply, as part of Council’s draft Long-Term Plan (LTP), we’re proposing to investigate whether a groundwater bore can be established to supplement the water extracted from surface water sources during periods of low flows. See more about this at Stratford.govt.nz/LTP

Introducing metered charging for the supply of water

We don’t charge for the water itself, we only cover the cost of treating it to make it safe to drink and paying for the pipes in the ground to deliver it to your homes.

Eventually every home will be charged for the amount of water they use rather than the flat yearly charge they pay now. Households would be given time to track and cut their water use before metered charging begins.

The final fee structure for water meters is yet to be determined and will become a topic for discussion and feedback in a future Annual Plan process.

The way we’ll structure our fees for the provision of water in Stratford will be part of a future Annual Plan process. When we get to that stage, you’ll be able to have your say on what we’re proposing. We’ll make sure people have time to track their usage and get used to things before we start metered charging.

It's going to take us until March 2025 to complete the manifold installation. We know that moving to a fairer way of charging for the provision of water is the right step to take, but we think it's best to wait before we decide on the fees and charges, as costs can change. We also need the meters to be installed so we have some good solid data about Stratford's average water usage, then we can work out what would be equitable to charge.

We won’t start charging right away to give everyone a chance to get used to a metered supply – and to track down and get fixed any existing leaks.

The decision to move to universal water meters was taken by our elected members as part of their Long Term Plan 2021-31 process. At the time, councillors heard and carefully considered all community submissions.

As part of our current resource consents to take water from the environment, we have to take measures to conserve water and introducing universal meters will be of huge help. Already in Midhirst and Toko, where we have them installed, we've been able to make significant water savings by identifying and fixing leaks. That's a big plus and we're excited to see what we can find and get fixed in Stratford too.

The metered charge will replace the fixed cost already charged to every connected property. Community members will be encouraged to have their say when we're looking at the cost structure for metered charging. We know it's tough out there for many people and we'll be keeping our lower income community members in mind when we start that stage of the mahi.

Some people might be at an advantage when we shift to a fairer way of distributing the costs of supplying water, like retirees who are unlikely to use a large amount of water.

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