 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
Infrastructure
Water, rubbish, and roads – these form essential elements of the infrastructure that enables our communities to continue functioning.
It is the responsibility of councils to identify and meet infrastructure needs. As communities grow, the councils ensure that vital services keep pace with development. They can encourage sustainable growth in areas where infrastructure is already present and provide services where there is new population growth.
They can identify where growth should be – recognising where there is population growth but a lack of infrastructure. It is logical to encourage sustainable growth where other parts of the region have the infrastructure available but may not have the growth pressures.
Chris Carter, Labour Minister for Local Government, says that engagement between central and local government contributes to developing long-term solutions to the infrastructural needs of communities.
Water
Underneath our homes, businesses and the streets we travel on is a
vast network of pipes continually pumping water. In Christchurch there
are over 1,300km of mains pipes – enough pipes to run from Christchurch
to Whangarei! The total length of underground pipework, including submains,
is 3,000 km.
As noted on page 40, city and district councils are responsible for the distribution
of water and for managing the water and wastewater networks. They set water
management and distribution policy, they control water pricing, they ensure
that broken pipes are fixed and that networks of pipes are laid in new developments.
Even if councils decide to contract out these functions, they still retain
both control and responsibility for providing water to the local community.
Rubbish
Every year each household generates enough rubbish to fill an average living room. With thousands of households in each local community, this adds up to a lot of rubbish that needs to be disposed of somewhere.
City and district councils are responsible for collecting this rubbish from the kerbside. However, landfills are filling up at an ever-increasing rate and there are many concerns about the environmental effects that so much refuse is having. Solving this problem is a strong focus for councils.
Most councils have a waste management policy that aims to educate residents to increase recycling, composting and reusing, and to reduce solid waste. Many councils back this up with incentives, such as reduced volume rubbish collections and direct charges for collection, regular inorganic and hazardous substance collections, and programmes such as ‘Create your own Eden’ to encourage householders to compost kitchen and garden waste. Councils such as Waitakere have seen a 30 percent reduction in household refuse since introducing such waste management policies.
Roads
Territorial councils are responsible for the building and upkeep of local roads, as discussed in the article on 'highways, byways and other ways'.
