Cost-Saving Water Project Sets Examples For Small Councils Nationwide
Hurunui District Council's award-winning Water Safety Project for protozoa compliance has been recognised yet again - this time for the impressive cost savings it's delivered while meeting new water standards.
Council won the Excellence in Cost Effective Impact Award at the 2025 LGFA Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards held last week.
The category is new to the awards and recognises programmes or projects that generate significant and demonstrable reduction in costs without compromising the achievement of the desired outcome.
Hurunui's Water Safety Project previously won the Excellence in Water Project Award at last month's Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) Excellence Awards.
Council's Chief Operations Officer Dan Harris said winning the Excellence in Cost Effective Impact category award was especially meaningful as the project had been born out of the challenges of meeting the costs of impending drinking water standards, which, for many of the districts' smaller supplies, would have been unaffordable.
The project involved upgrades to 16 water treatment plants at a total cost of $24 million to comply with water safety regulations requiring protozoa protection for each of these plants.
'It was an ambitious project by any standard but especially challenging for our district with its population of around 13,800 residents spread across 8,641 km2,' Harris said.
In 2015, Council consulted with its communities on a way forward to meet protozoa compliance.
'We agreed to implement a district-wide equitable rating system for all drinking water supplies. This combined all finances for all but one of our schemes,' Harris said.
To keep costs down, Council established an in-house Project Management Office (PMO), which significantly reduced the reliance on external consultants.
Judges at the awards recognised the project as a 'prime example of how rigorous project management and quality engagement can enable a council to meet both a critical regulatory requirement and a significant community expectation'.
Council CEO Hamish Dobbie said Hurunui is proud to be leading the way in developing a model of water delivery that is uniquely tailored to the district and has resulted in significant cost savings.
'Judges at both awards have commented that our model can be replicated by other councils, and is especially valuable for smaller councils managing multiple schemes,' Dobbie said.
Hurunui Mayor Marie Black said delivering robust infrastructure with good financial management sits at the heart of Council's strategic vision. 'As a smaller council, we're showing that through collaboration and strong financial management, it's possible to deliver innovative solutions with benefits well beyond our own district.'
This is the second year in a row Hurunui District Council has won its category at the Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards, having previously won the Community Engagement category last year.
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