I think it rates as among the single most selfish acts I can ever recall.

A North Canterbury farmer, disgruntled with his local council over the water connection rates he’s being charged for an as-yet uninhabited subdivision, has decided to launch a protest against the Waimakariri District Council.

In a part of New Zealand where droughts are common, and where water access is an especially contentious subject, he’s been pouring 10,000 litres of drinking water down the drain, every day.

10,000 litres. It’s like leaving a shower on for eleven or twelve hours every day.

I’m sorry, but that’s not a protest. That’s environmental vandalism. It should be a crime, as far as I’m concerned.

The whole situation is yet another reminder of why New Zealand councils all need to introduce water metering. I know it’s a contentious subject, but it’s outrageous to me that people like this farmer can so wilfully waste a precious resource without any financial impact.

At the moment, we have a bit of a hodgepodge patchwork of water metering for different councils across the country. Some regions and cities have metering, where you’re charged relative to your usage, but many still don’t. They rely on connection fees or other forms of rates to try and finance the pipes and infrastructure.

The value of metering is pretty obvious. Water metering also helps to detect leaks across the pipe network. People who are charged by their usage as opposed to their connection are incentivised to be more thoughtful about their water use. When the Kāpiti Coast introduced water metering, Stuff reported that water usage dropped 25%. That’s massive! Not only did it save the resource, it meant the maintenance on the region’s water infrastructure could be deferred for longer because the assets weren’t being hammered so hard.

New Zealand lags embarrassingly compared to other countries. when it comes to water metering. It’s commonplace overseas. By the year 2000, two-thirds of OECD countries had water metering for more than 90% of their single family homes. Imagine what that number is today! Fiji has water metering! The Ivory Coast has water metering!

The main criticism of metering is usually that water is a human right and metering will impact poorer families. I think we’re sophisticated enough to introduce targeted support for those people, like we do for other things. I get that it’s not a vote winner. But water metering seems an obvious thing for the new Three Waters entities to standardise across New Zealand.

The thing about that farmer’s protest is that, in a way, I agree with his gripe. He says he’s protesting an annual water connection fee for sections that haven’t yet been built on. Instead of that fee, I think a per-litre charge would be much more effective tool. It’s a shame they can’t retroactively introduce it and charge him an absolute premium. Wasting 10,000 litres every day is about the most profoundly selfish thing I can imagine.