In New Zealand, we think water is free. We pay our council for the cost of treating the water (with chlorine or through a filter system). The council also provides the pipes underground which deliver water to our house. In most parts of New Zealand, there are no water meters. Auckland is a little bit different. Aucklanders pay a charge for water, depending on how much they use, but this charge is for providing clean water to the house. Most other parts of New Zealand, this cost is included in our rates.
Farmers don’t pay for water but they have meters and are only allowed to use a finite amount of water. They have to apply for permission to use this and can’t take more than what they are allowed.
Some multi-national companies sell our water overseas. They bottle water from a spring or some other source and they do not pay for it. When Ashburton council tried to sell water to an overseas company, local people got angry. At that time, Prime Minister John Key, said that no-one owned the water. Listen to
April 20th 2016 to hear more about this.
The latest plan is to take water from a fast-flowing river – the Arawhata River – on the West Coast of the South Island and sell it overseas. The water comes from a glacier. This plan is different from other plans because there is plenty of water in this river and the shareholders of the company are from the West Coast. There is a lot of unemployment on the West Coast and this plan could help the local economy.
Vocabulary
• to treat (v) water, treatment (n) – to process (also used of a medical process)
• chlorine – a chemical – Cl – which keeps the water clean
• filter system – water passes through sand and gravel to make it clean
• rates – property taxes, we pay rates to the local council for local services like libraries, parks, footpaths
• finite – an amount you can measure; opposite – infinite (adj), infinity (n)
• multi-national company – company which operates in many countries
• a spring (n) – water flows naturally from the ground
• glacier – frozen river; note: New Zealand pronunciation with ‘s’ not ‘sh’
• shareholders – people who put money in the company so they own part of the company