Civil Contractors New Zealand Chief Executive Alan Pollard has welcomed the Government’s long-awaited Local Water Done Well policies announced yesterday, but warns water contractors are suffering from an immediate lack of work and the country risks losing exceptional businesses.

Mr Pollard said while New Zealand needed to overcome its chronic underinvestment in water infrastructure, many contractors currently had no forward work past the projects they were currently performing .

“The forward programme of construction work on water networks has severely slowed, to the point where many civil construction businesses are at risk.

“On the back of this announcement, we now need councils to prioritise their water construction programmes, or we will lose skilled businesses with water construction expertise. We must retain capacity and capability in the industry if we are to carry out the required work when it does come to market.”

He said while better planning was certainly needed, there was a risk any new funding would go towards creating new organisational structures, rather than physically constructing and maintaining the country’s water networks, which should be the immediate concern.

“Many of our contractor members are not receiving forward work programme updates, meaning they are unsure if they can continue. They have been asked to scale up capacity for a large amount of work repairing, replacing and upgrading water networks – so where is the work?”

Councils now needed to use any tools they had at their disposal to bring water work programmes to market. 

Mr Pollard said that council-controlled water organisations (CCOs) played an important role but were often underfunded by councils and poorly understood by elected representatives.

“If the CCO model is to be successful, they must be properly supported and funded to enable them to carry out their duties.”

Better decision making was needed around replacing the country’s aging water networks, which were increasingly being patched and clamped rather than replaced.

“Our members are concerned the system is becoming increasingly reactive, and they are being asked to scramble to fix leaks rather than receiving well-planned forward programmes of pipe replacement from clients.” 

Long-term funding also needed attention and moves to water meter installation were critical, not only to create a sustainable long-term funding model, but also as an opportunity to fill the gap in workflow in the short term to retain industry capacity and capability.

Mr Pollard said contractors offered a unique practical perspective as the people conducting the physical works on the network for their clients in local government, and more early contractor engagement and representation at a decision-making and technical advisory level was needed for the reforms to be successful.

Photo credit: Michelle Hoffmann, E.N. Ramsbottom Contractors