Chris Insley has set up an online petition for Ōpōtiki District Council to install a 30,000 litre rainwater tank in each rural household on the East Coast.

He believed it would work out cheaper than creating larger water infrastructure to pipe water to households over a widespread district.

He gave a rough estimate of around 2000 houses along the Coast.

That’s $10 million to spend $5000 per household to get a $3000 tank and get it installed. In my view that’s nothing, especially when I look up north where [Northland’s Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust] created a community-owned water storage system which I understand cost $20-$50 million to build.

“I believe that if you tried to build something similar to that along the coast it would cost more because the geography along the coast is quite different.”

He said while there were a lot of homes that had water tanks, many homes in the area relied on 50-year-old water reticulation system that he described as “broken-down and past its use-by date”.

“Isn’t it a simple solution? There’s no shortage of rainwater up the coast. Maybe coming up with simple things like that is too easy,” Mr Insley said.

“Many whānau are struggling daily due to inadequate water supply systems. I've witnessed firsthand how disputes over water access are fracturing communities and damaging the sacred relationships within our families.

It is heartbreaking to see such conflict over a resource so vital to our existence, especially when practical and immediate solutions exist.”
Mr Insley has also reached out to Mayor David Moore, via a letter, putting the proposal to him.

Mr Moore wouldn’t comment on Mr Insley’s idea, saying there was a lot of complex issues happening with three waters at the moment, which was in the process of undergoing massive central government reforms.

Mr Insley’s petition can be found on the change.org website, called Support Tailored Water Solutions for East Coast, NZ