NEWSLETTER
July 2026
Kia ora koutou, and welcome to our July newsletter
With less than a year until Waitī Waters officially begins operating on 1 July 2027, these updates are a way to keep you connected to progress. From Council staff and partners to suppliers, contractors, future customers and communities across the Wairarapa and Tararua region, there are many people and organisations playing a role in delivering this transition.
As we get closer to our start date, it’s been another busy month building the foundations of Waitī Waters. One important area of this has been creating clear pathways for Council staff in waterrelated roles to transition their employment to Waitī Waters. Water operations staff have now had their employment pathway confirmed, giving us a much clearer picture of the shape of our emerging organisation. More importantly, it gives people certainty about their future employment with Waitī Waters, which has been front of mind throughout this process.
Our team is also working to confirm our new head office location, and we hope to have news to share in the next month. Currently, our focus is on completing our detailed organisation design, procuring new digital systems, developing our asset management strategy and plans, including our capital investment programme, and confirming our approach to charging for water services.
Message from the Chair
Great people make a great organisation – this is why the Waitī Waters Board is, and will continue to be, focused on getting the right people in place over the next year. We are excited to have been able to confirm employment pathways for Council staff as our first priority. And now we are actively working on recruiting experienced leaders for the organisation. We will shortly be able to announce our new Chief Executive and are now preparing to go to market for our executive leadership team, beginning with the CFO.
At the Board’s meeting last month with the Stakeholders’ Forum, we talked about their expectations of our organisation, and we have started work on our Water Services Strategy, which is our 10-year delivery and financial plan. This strategy will shape how we plan and invest in water infrastructure for the four communities to meet the needs of current and future customers.
We will continue to work closely with our Council and iwi partners in the development of this strategy to ensure we build an organisation that will deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective water services.
I also want to acknowledge the recent serious weather events across the region this month. We know how hard these are for communities, and of course the impact they can have on water, stormwater and wastewater services.
As we prepare to assume responsibility for water services next year, we will ensure that we are prepared and ready to respond to any events that may occur in the early days of operation and will also be working over the longer term to ensure our water services network is resilient to future challenges, including the impacts of climate change, natural hazards and other localised risks.
— Adrienne, Board Chair, Waitī Waters
Our People
Meet one of our Board Directors,
Clive Rundle BEng (Hons)
Clive has joined the Waitī Waters Board after more than 30 years of leadership in municipal water infrastructure across New Zealand and Australia. He is a civil engineer by trade and most recently worked for a large infrastructure and engineering consultancy as Group Director Utilities where he grew the water and power utility business to over 500 staff.
Clive has governed a range of water industry entities as both Chair and Director, including as Board Chair of HunterH2O Holdings, Board Director of CH2M Beca, and Board Director of Hutt Valley Water Services — a water operations company contracted to Hutt City Council for 20 years. He has also served on the Board of Water New Zealand for five years, including two years as President. We’re fortunate to have Clive’s technical and governance expertise on the Waitī Waters Board.
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I’m excited about the potential. The creation of Waitī Waters enables us to retain the strong public service ethos of Council staff and leverage their skills across the region through a larger organisation, with a greater depth of technical and financial resources. For my part, I will bring knowledge from a career entirely in the water industry to help guide us to the right decisions on infrastructure investments and utility operations that will support social and economic prosperity across the generations.
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What's good to know
Water Services Strategy
Our Statement of Expectations (SOE) is nearing completion, with final approval from Councils expected at Council meetings in late July or early August. The SOE, which sets out Councils’ and iwi partners’ 10-year expectations for Waitī Waters, will be made available on our website following Council approval, at Key Documents | Waiti Waters.
We’re now preparing our Water Services Strategy, which will show the community how we’re going to deliver on the Statement of Expectations. This Strategy will be publicly available for feedback in early 2027.
This strategy will cover how we will deliver water services to customers through the region, our capital investment programme for the next 10 years, and our financial strategy and pricing to ensure we are running a financially sustainable organisation that delivers value-for-money for communities.
Our regulators (the Commerce Commission and Taumata Arowai) will take a strong interest in this document to ensure that we are meeting the environmental and financial regulatory standards expected of new water organisations.
LGFA accession
We have begun the process of accession to the Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA). The LGFA is the organisation that will provide Waitī Waters (and all water organisations) with the debt funding we will need to deliver our infrastructure investment programme (in much the same way as they do for Councils currently).
In order to complete the LGFA accession process, Waitī Waters needs to demonstrate it will be able to meet the LGFA’s financial covenants which measure the ability of an organisation to repay their debt. The LGFA uses a Free Funds from Operations to Debt ratio as their measure of financial risk and the ability of an entity to repay its debt. Higher ratios indicate a stronger, less risky position with respect to repaying debt.
The LGFA requires a water organisation the size of Waitī Waters (25,000 water connections) to meet a 9% Free Funds from Operations to Debt ratio. The Waitī Waters Board has decided to target a 10% ratio, which is a more conservative target and ensures Waitī Waters will have a level of resilience to meet any financial shocks.
We expect this accession process to be completed in October this year.
Did you know?
South Wairarapa and Tararua. Not only that, Waitī Waters will also manage water assets valued at about $700 million and deliver a capital investment programme of $400 million over the next decade!
FAQ's
Is Waitī Waters part of the Government’s proposed local council amalgamation?
No. Waitī Waters and the proposed local council amalgamation are separate. Waitī Waters is about providing safe and reliable water infrastructure and services in South Wairarapa, Tararua, Carterton and Masterton. From 1 July 2027, Waitī Waters will look after drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services for these communities.
Council amalgamation is different. It is about whether some local councils should join together to become one larger council which could change how they are set up and how local decisions are made. If Councils were to decide to amalgamate, this may change which Councils are shareholders of Waitī Waters. But it would not be expected to have any other impact on Waitī Waters operations, or how it delivers services for the Wairarapa and Tararua communities.
Upcoming Board meetings
You can see the public papers and agendas at waitīwaters.co.nz
» 3 August –Board meeting (Masterton)
» 7 September –Board meeting and joint session with the Stakeholders’ Forum (Pahiatua)
» 15 October –Board meeting (Dannevirke)