Research and Policy
Supply of Essential Services to Sub-standard Housing in Northland East Cape and Bay of Plenty (NECBOP) - October 2007
Rural households face difficulties in accessing essential services for wastewater disposal, drinking water and energy supply. These difficulties are particularly acute in remote areas with high deprivation. This research found that a number of factors constrain rural households' access to adequate services, including high costs of installing on-site services, low household incomes, insufficient household knowledge about and motivation to maintain on-site systems, an acceptance of inadequate services, difficulties in accessing trades people, and limited financial resources for development of new reticulation. Government support for essential services exists and has provided significant assistance, but interviewees suggested that its effectiveness has been compromised by an insufficient overall level of funding, insufficient attention to educating and motivating householders to undertake maintenance of on-site systems, an approach focusing more on individual houses than on communities, and a lack of awareness of the support among potential recipients. The study recommends several areas for policy development.
Overview
Households in remote rural locations are often confronted with particular barriers to accessing adequate essential services for drinking water supply, wastewater disposal and energy supply. Lack of these services can pose significant risks to households and their surrounding communities, for example through contamination of waterways by sewage and through the fire
risk from using candles for lighting.
Several government schemes provide support for low income households to access essential services. These include:
- Housing New Zealand's Rural Housing Programme (which aims to alleviate sub-standard rural housing in the NECBOP regions)
- the Ministry of Health's Drinking Water Assistance Programme
- the Ministry of Social Development's grants and loans for repairs and maintenance
- Te Puni Kokiri's Special Housing Action Zones.
There are also some community-run schemes that support householders to maintain their on-site systems by providing assistance and education, such as the Tolaga Bay contributory maintenance scheme and the Ngati Kahungungu Tools Trailer.
Research purpose and approach
The aims of this research were to:
- develop an overview of the means of wastewater disposal, supply of drinking water, and provision of energy that are used in rural NECBOP
- find out what factors present barriers to adequate essential services in NECBOP
- determine how well government policies and practices are meeting needs for the supply and maintenance of essential services to low income households in NECBOP
- identify options for how Housing New Zealand could more effectively provide support for the supply and maintenance of essential services to low income households in NECBOP.
The research approach had two components:
- A review of documented information on the status of and assistance available for essential services in NECBOP. Sources included:
- long-term council community plans and sanitary water assessments
- electricity lines companies' asset management plans
- the New Zealand Drinking Water Register database
- information on government schemes that provide assistance for essential services
- legislative and technical documents relating to wastewater disposal, drinking water supplies and electricity provision.
- Interviews with 32 people who have expert knowledge of issues relating to essential services in NECBOP. Interviewees included central government agency staff, NECBOP district council and district health board staff, housing managers from iwi organisations and independent technical experts.
Key points
- Throughout NECBOP, drinking water and wastewater reticulation is mostly restricted to main townships. Dwellings outside of these areas primarily use septic tank systems for wastewater treatment and roof-top water collection for drinking water supplies.
- Electricity reticulation is more extensive than water reticulation; the great majority of rural NECBOP houses can connect to the national grid. However, electricity supply to remote areas can be unreliable, and some particularly remote houses and communities lack reticulated electricity, so either generate power on site or use non-electric means of heating and lighting.
- Households experience problems with septic systems failing due to their age, inadequate maintenance, inappropriate design for the conditions or household circumstances. This has resulted in unsanitary conditions.
- Households can also experience problems with contaminated or insufficient roof-top drinking water supplies. Insufficient supply can result from dry summer conditions or from undersized or leaky water tanks or spouting.
- The main factors thought to constrain households' access to adequate services were:
- the high cost of on-site systems
- insufficient household knowledge about and motivation to maintain on-site systems
- an acceptance among households of inadequate services
- difficulties in accessing good trades people
- limited financial resources for communities or district councils to develop new reticulation.
- Government schemes that support essential services have provided significant benefit by alleviating some of the sub-standard conditions in NECBOP.
- Interviewees said that the effectiveness of government support has been compromised by:
- insufficient funding to address the overall need
- a lack of household knowledge, skill and motivation to upgrade and maintain on-site systems
- insufficient coordination between agencies and support schemes
- a greater focus on individual houses than on communities or clusters of houses
- a lack of awareness of the support among potential recipients.
- The research found some gaps in the availability of support for essential services. Further support is needed for upgrading reticulated community sewerage systems. Support is also needed to assist households to repair their on-site essential services when their income or assets lift them just above the threshold for Rural Housing Programme eligibility.
Findings
The following findings are derived from information gathered through interviews and the document review.
The status of essential services in NECBOP
Northland, the eastern Bay of Plenty, and the East Cape face very similar circumstances with respect to their essential services.
District council-owned drinking water and wastewater reticulation is mostly restricted to main townships. A few small reticulated drinking water supplies outside of these areas are owned by communities and private individuals or businesses. Reticulated drinking water supplies are variable in quality. Some are compliant with the 2005 New Zealand Drinking Water Standards, while others are graded unacceptable. Dwellings that are not connected to reticulated water
and wastewater supplies usually use septic tank systems for wastewater, and roof-top water collection for drinking water.
Failing septic systems are not uncommon, with failure resulting from age, inadequate maintenance, inappropriate design for the conditions or household circumstances. This has
resulted in unsanitary conditions such as untreated sewage leaching into waterways and homeowners digging open trenches to replace failed septic tank soakage fields.
Problems are also experienced with contamination and insufficiency of roof-top-collected drinking water supplies. Insufficient supply can result from dry summer conditions or from undersized or leaking water tanks or spouting.
Electricity reticulation is much more extensive than water reticulation, although some very remote houses and communities still lack reticulated electricity. There are problems with the capacity of the electricity distribution infrastructure and the reliability of the supply, especially in more remote areas. The cost of electricity supply was also raised as an issue by interviewees.
Many households in rural NECBOP face problems in accessing essential services that are very uncommon among households located near main urban centres. These problems have negative consequences, including gastroenteric disease contracted from contaminated drinking water supplies, poor health from inadequate home heating, fire and burn risks in houses lacking electricity. They also create impediments to business development.
Barriers to adequate essential services
Interviewees identified a number of factors that constrain rural NECBOP households' access to adequate essential services.
- Low income households struggle to afford the costs of installing and maintaining on-site drinking water and wastewater systems.
- On-site wastewater disposal systems suitable for areas with poor soakage are particularly expensive to purchase and maintain, some interviewees citing costs of up to $30,000 for these systems.
- Costs of on-site systems are increased by the need to transport material and tradespeople long distances.
- Good tradespeople willing to work in remote areas can be hard to find.
- Householders can lack the knowledge and motivation required to maintain on-site systems, and can become accepting of inadequate services.
Despite the divergent backgrounds of interviewees, there was a distinct convergence of opinion on barriers to essential services. Even the more technically focused interviewees identified social,
educational and psychological issues as the most important barriers. The low socioeconomic status of rural households and communities means that they cannot afford maintenance or upgrades, and the lack of household knowledge about and motivation to undertake maintenance
compromises the sustainability of any assistance. Interviewees emphasised that resolution of these issues will be crucial in ensuring the sustainability of government interventions supporting infrastructure.
For some larger rural communities, barriers to the installation and maintenance of on-site systems could be alleviated by providing reticulated community water and wastewater services. However, communities and district councils struggle to find the financial resources to develop new reticulation.
Support for essential services
Government schemes have provided significant benefit by alleviating some of the sub-standard housing conditions in NECBOP. Interviewees said that without this support, the situation would have become much worse than it is at present.
Interviewees felt that the effectiveness of the government support has, however, been compromised by:
- insufficient funding to address the overall need in NECBOP
- insufficient attention to addressing householders' knowledge, skill and motivational barriers to upgrading and maintaining their on-site infrastructure
- insufficient coordination between agencies and sources of support
- a greater focus on individual houses than on communities or clusters of houses
- a lack of awareness among potential recipients of the support that could be available to them.
Some gaps (areas where support is needed but is currently unavailable) were identified by interviewees. The two most commonly mentioned were that there is currently little support available for upgrades to reticulated community sewerage, and that households cannot access support for repairing on-site infrastructure when their income or assets take them just above the threshold for the Rural Housing Programme.
Implications for policy development
Improving government support for essential services will require a coordinated policy development process. This research identified the following areas in which policy development could be undertaken:
- initiatives to upgrade essential services
- levels of funding for schemes that support essential service provision to low income rural households
- ways to develop householders' knowledge, skills and motivation for upgrading and maintaining their on-site systems
- possibilities for increasing support for cluster and community reticulation and also placing a greater emphasis on community engagement and socioeconomic development of communities. Good community engagement will generate more sustainable community driven solutions. Socio-economic development can, in the long-term, assist in alleviating affordability issues
- long-term approaches with the Rural Housing Programme. This would allow the scheme to engage communities and to support more community and cluster reticulation projects
- ways to improve coordination between support agencies and funding streams
- ways to address the major gaps in support
- technologies to improve the cost-effectiveness of on-site wastewater treatment and electricity generation systems. Some of the more widely accepted systems are not appropriate for low income households in NECBOP because of their high installation and maintenance costs.
Further Information
This summary is based on the report:
Supply of essential services to sub-standard housing in NECBOP. Housing New Zealand Corporation (June 2007).
