Why IAWAI?
IAWAI has been created for you.
Following public consultation in 2025, Hamilton City and Waikato District Council have jointly built a more efficient water services organisation that can invest more over time while keeping costs as low as possible.
Our scale, and our greater access to debt funding, means we can spread the costs of infrastructure over a longer period, reducing the burden on today’s ratepayers and ensuring those in the future pay their fair share.
We have significant challenges to address. Water and wastewater costs are rising, so we need to find savings without cutting the essential services we all rely on.
We need to support new homes and businesses without expecting all households to fund that growth.
Much of our network is ageing and needs a lot of work. Decades of under-investment mean tough choices because we can’t afford to fix everything at once.
Ageing infrastructure can result in leaks and environmental damage. Maintenance is essential to protect our environment, our awa (river) and our moana (sea).
So, what changes?
You won’t see much change initially. Your everyday water services will operate as normal, and you can use the same channels to report issues or request a service.
Your billing will be similar but depending on your Council area you may see changes in how your rates bills and water charges are presented.
We have already helped reduce the projected costs for households. Water costs are increasing but IAWAI has managed to reduce those increases.
The average increases in water charges for the coming year are lower than those projected by our shareholder Councils as standalone organisations.
Our Water Services Strategy projects the average household costs will total around 10% less under IAWAI than under their councils over the next three years.
Over time, you will see more change as we introduce new ways of tackling the issues we face, as we ensure growth pays its fair share, and as we spread the costs of delivering water services more equitably across our whole area.
Later in 2026, we’ll be asking you about our next Water Services Strategy. We’ll have full public consultation early in 2027 and we want your views.
Some big decisions need to be made and changes are coming in the years ahead, but we have time, and we’ll be working with you every step of the way.