Next month, Watercare will introduce a range of changes to charging and billing for water and wastewater services.
These changes include a single, standardised wastewater tariff for residential customers. This new tariff replaces inconsistent wastewater charging where the amount households paid for wastewater services varied significantly between the former council areas.
From 1 July 2012, everyone will pay standardised wastewater charges, all water and wastewater services will be billed by Watercare, and these bills will be issued monthly. The price of water will increase by 4c per 1000 litres.
These changes mean that for domestic customers both water and wastewater will be uniformly charged across the entire Auckland City region. In addition, for customers on the North Shore, in Waitakere, Rodney and Franklin, the changes mean that the wastewater charge will no longer be included in their rates bill.
WATER: The price of water will increase by 3.3% to $1.343 per 1000 litres. This applies to residential and non-residential customers.
WASTEWATER (RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS): Every home in Auckland will pay a single, region-wide wastewater tariff. Customers will pay a $190 fixed service charge per water meter, plus a volumetric charge of $2.281 per 1000 litres (the volumetric component is charged on a percentage of the volume of water consumed through the water meter). Customers that do not have water meters but are connected to the wastewater network will pay a fixed charge of $582 per year.
WASTEWATER (NON-RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS): The cost of wastewater services will increase by 3.6%. The existing formulas for calculating the charges will continue to be applied.
The changes to how wastewater usage is calculated and charged for follow wide public consultation earlier this year.
Click here to view 2012 / 2013 water and wastewater charges.