Dear Editor, Changing the To Tatou Vai Act 2021 must be a priority for our MPs.

This year stakeholders have been the object of an ADB-funded tariff setting exercise. Financial institutions from larger, diversified, and meaningfully-regulated economies have a dogmatic belief in the free market. The Cook Islands does not pass muster on any of these counts. Micro-economy. Singular income stream. Politicised governance. Nothing is for free.

Following publication of the Tariff Assessment, TVOM (Te Vai Ora Maori) brought significant flaws to the attention of the Board of Directors. Over-estimated revenue, missing expenditure, no depreciation, and capital freefall. When the intent is to set a price per litre to achieve financial independence and operate in an economically sustainable manner, then getting the numbers this wrong should mean back to the drawing board.

Instead, it is rumoured that the schedule presented to the public in June has been scrapped and re-fabricated. Twice over. So far?

The deadline to charge has also been brought forward. Was 1 January 2025, but post the launch of the “Keep Our Water Free” petition, businesses on the TAU database will be billed from 1 October 2024!

In parallel, Cook Islands Government has chosen to depart from the metric system, preferring to allocate domestic customers ‘by the barrel’.

Crunching the numbers: 3.12 occupants × 2 barrels per person per day = ...?

Meanwhile, the sector most dependent on water has been sidelined.

The tariff team held 16 meetings in April, none of these were with growers, grower representative groups, or the Ministry of Agriculture. In July, organics group NKA resorted to co-opting the Ministry boardroom, taking out newspaper advertising, and formally inviting the TTV Board and Executive. Still no show.

Chasing revenue requires the water authority to spin a $500,000 capital budget into the $6 million needed to complete meter installation. Even allowing for split-shift extractive labour utilisation, the reserves run dry after just 500 meters. The tariff fast-track is to finance the installation of more water meters.

The collateral damages of this corporate intent are water quality and reliable supply.

The sand filters are clogged and corroding. Solidifying media splits, draining sediment into storage tanks or direct to the network. Constant backwashing dumps thousands of litres of chemically-treated water into freshwater streams. Storage/pressure head tanks must be routinely drained, cleared, rinsed, and then refilled. Quoting the CEO, this magnitude of water loss is “difficult to explain”.

As pressure drops, those furthest from the intakes feel it first. Rua’au heights - towering 12m above sea level - are out of time and pocket as a result of carting water from the coast.

The only control remaining in government hands is the amount of free water allocation the Crown will pay for, each month. An intervention is required - urgently – but the Minister just can’t be found. And the PM is keen to be out of town.

Unravelling the whole ball of wax will take some doing, but tackling this elephant is best done one bite at a time.

We call upon our MPs to change the Act. Strike clauses 4(c), and 26(2)(a). Make To Tatou Vai a service again.

Te Vai Ora Maori