What do we mean by water services?

Community water services include:


Stormwater services are not included in the proposed regional model

Stormwater services work closely with many other council services and activities, including roading and parks. They also directly impact land management and growth planning. They are very different between each Taranaki council, and at this stage will be best delivered individually. The three Taranaki district councils have agreed that they will keep control of stormwater services at this time. That position may change in future, but the current consultation proposal for a joint Taranaki water service delivery model is for drinking water and wastewater services only.


About our water services in the Stratford District


  • We currently provide water services to 71% of the district’s residents and wastewater services to 61%.
  • This covers 3,125 water connections and 2,765 wastewater connections.
  • The cost to replace our three waters assets is approximately $151 million
  • The cost tooperate our water services cost approximately $4 million annually, which is about 14% of Council's total operating expenditure
  • In the 2023/24 year we supplied 934,569m3 of drinking water
  • On average we treat 1,576m3 of wastewater daily
  • Due to significant capital works planned, the water services debt is expected to increase from $11 million to $31 million over the 10 years of the Long Term Plan (LTP) 2024-2034.


Key investments in the next 10 years include:

  • Additional water storage $9.4 million
  • Reticulation and safety renewals $8.5 million
  • New Pātea River crossing for trunk main $5 million
  • Replacement of the 100 year old grit tank and raw water delivery line $4.2 million
  • Desludging of our wastewater pond to increase capacity and improve discharge quality $3.4 million
  • Completion of the universal water metering project $1.5 million
  • Upgrade of the wastewater treatment plant to an advanced treatment system. This project is anticipated to cost $50 million and to be completed over an 8-year period, commencing with the renewal of our wastewater resource consent in Year 9 of the Long Term Plan.


SDC has no renewal backlog. We have historically invested in essential services as appropriate to ensure a general aligning of our renewal budget with our replacement profile.

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