Letters to the Editor
Muddying the waters
There were two very different, but both pertinent, articles in Cambridge News (May 7) regarding Waikato Waters.
What surprised me most was the fact that Waipā District Council has entered this new arrangement apparently without any agreed standards of performance. I would have thought these were one of the first things to be agreed upon. Which one of us would agree to pay for a service with no defined expectations as of what we were buying? Surely, it’s not too difficult to agree on simple shared service levels such as response time to faults, maintenance of acceptable water quality and pressure and adequate notice of planned supply interruption.
To be assured Waikato Waters “would address these issues as they arose” is no assurance at all, particularly as the new Council-Controlled Organisation and its board are totally independent.
Mary Anne Gill’s article also raised some interesting questions, and I support her contention that we are far less tolerant of unnecessary distance – “whether that distance is geographic, financial or cultural”. We already see this lack of community and cultural sensitivity/appreciation in so many organisations that do not reside alongside us.
As she so rightly points out the new culture and expectations of Waikato Waters have already been set by their choice of headquarters decision.
See: Safeguards sought on water
Ray Milner
Cambridge
Letters to Editor. Photo: Pixabay
