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| Auckland slows sewage solutions, pockets water price hike revenues |
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| Written by Nandor Tanczos | |
| Thursday, 31 May 2007 | |
 The Green Party is outraged that Auckland City Council has chosen to protect its dividend from Metrowater by letting sewage flow into Auckland harbours for an additional six years."This is outrageous behaviour from the Council, and from the Treasury advisers who effectively gave a rationale for the decision. It demonstrates why Aucklanders should be very cautious about current proposals to amend legislation to allow Watercare to also pay dividends to shareholding councils,” Green Party Environment Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos says. “One of the important elements of public ownership of companies is that the pressure to make profits for shareholders is mediated by other values. Infrastructural decisions should not be dominated by the desire for short term profit,” Nandor says. “Aucklanders have already been hit with two price rises for their water use of more than 9 per cent each, and are facing massive further increases over the next ten years. "The Council should be ensuring that Metrowater makes cleaning up the harbour a top priority. Instead they have been ordering the water company to slow down the work on reducing wastewater overflows, so that the Council can keep more of the dividends it stands to reap from the price hikes. "Aucklanders should not have to wait another 20 years to stop sewage from being dumped in their harbour. The ACC should put Metrowater back on the fast track for dealing with this problem, and thus give Aucklanders some value for money for the water prices they are now being asked to pay, " Nandor says. “Auckland's marketing image is based on being the City of Sails. A clean unpolluted harbour has to be a renewed priority, so that the reality lives up to the image. Auckland's civic leaders are letting down the city, and the citizens that it has been price gouging.”
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 06 June 2007 ) |
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