The Government’s Water Services Reforms are shifting New Zealand’s waters services into 10 new entities across New Zealand.
The reform will see the delivery of Tauranga’s drinking water, wastewater and stormwater transferred from Council to a new Bay of Plenty regional entity (Entity C).
We will continue to manage Tauranga’s water services until the new entity comes into place on or after January 2025.
Central Government announces “reset” to Three Waters Reform
13 April 2023
Central Government has announced its reset plan for its Three Waters Reform programme, now named Water Services Reform. Notable changes have been made on the timeline of the reform and the framework of the programme. Changes include increasing the number of Water Services Entities from one to 10, and a new ‘go-live’ date for these entities that will occur in a staged approach from early 2025 to 1 July 2026, rather than the original start date of 1 July 2024 for all entities. With this reset, Tauranga’s water services will now transition to the newly announced Water Services Entity C (Bay of Plenty), alongside Western Bay District Council, Whakatāne District Council, Rotorua Lakes Council, Kawerau District Council and Ōpōtiki District Council.
Tauranga City Council has been anticipating changes to the Government’s Three Waters Reform programme since the announcement of a ‘review and reset’ of the programme in February 2023. Throughout this time, we’ve continued to fulfil our obligations set out by the Department of Internal Affairs’ National Transition Unit to work towards transitioning Tauranga’s water services to a Water Services Entity.
With many of the details of change still to come, we will take time to review them and the details of the revised National Transition Unit programme of work when it is available, to determine what this means for our communities, businesses, and staff. We will continue to participate and be involved in discussions regarding this revised programme as we work to determine the best interests and outcome for Tauranga.
You can learn more about the Three Waters Reform reset on the Reform’s webpage, including the news update introducing the changes made to the reform.
Water Services Entities Map 261kb pdf
Why the change?
Local Councils are facing significant challenges with the future management of drinking water, stormwater and wastewater services.
To read more about the Government’s water services reform programme, visit the Water Services Reform website.
What does this mean for Tauranga?
While Tauranga City Council is delivering some of the best water services in New Zealand, we can still see challenges that need to be addressed.
With the details of the Reform yet to be finalised, we are focusing on preparations to best position our Council with the timeframes for change we have been given. While we agree with the intent of the Reform, we have raised a number of concerns on behalf of our community. We will engage with the Government and working groups at every opportunity to ensure our local issues are considered.
Tangata Whenua
We recognise and support the need for iwi/Māori to work alongside council to ensure that any reform doesn’t adversely impact existing rights and interests. We also see value in the perspective Tangata Whenua can offer as the reforms unfold.
A partnership brings the opportunity to incorporate the value of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) to facilitate the best outcomes for New Zealand communities. The reform provides an opportunity to start this process side-by-side.
The reform is aimed at delivering the outcomes of Te Mana o te Wai, a set of principles co-designed with iwi/Māori to lift the water quality of our streams, rivers and lakes.
Locally, we have committed to working in partnership with Te Rangapū Mana Whenua o Tauranga Moana (the representative group for our iwi and hapū in the Tauranga City Council area).
Transitioning to the new entities
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has established a National Transition Unit (NTU) to focus on the practical implementation of the reforms. This unit will work with the local government sector, iwi, water industry and other stakeholders to transition to the new arrangements.
We are being proactive in getting involved with transition discussions to see the best outcome for Tauranga’s people, our environment and future generations.
Concerns from our community
Central Government asked councils to seek feedback from their communities on the Three Waters reform proposal in late 2021. The results of an online survey for our Tauranga community were used to develop feedback sent to central government in September 2021.
View the 2021 Three Waters reform feedback
The concerns raised by the community have been summarised into ten themes, and we are using these themes as the basis for our feedback to government.
Read more information about these concerns, and their current status.(37kb pdf)