I’m certainly in favour of user pays for overseas visitors, so long as the costs of collection were not too high. I also support Charles Finny:

Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive Charles Finny said he favoured an amalgamation of local bodies in the Wellington region “rather have that than some sort of discriminatory pricing”.

“We think that having nine councils for a population of 450,000 people is absurd.”

If an amalgamation happened, funding problems would “just go away”.

Indeed Wellington does not need four city councils and five district councils.

Two of Wellington’s leaders are backing debate on a user-pays water system to reduce Wellingtonians’ reckless consumption – now more than twice the national average.

Wellingtonians each use 400 litres of water a day compared with Aucklanders’ 300 litres and a national average of 160 litres.

Of course water should be user pays. Food is.

International research showed charging people for the water they used could slash consumption by 20 to 40 per cent. This would ease pressure on the region’s water supply and delay the need to build a proposed $142-million dam for 20 years.

An excellent reasons to do it. This part was interesting:

• Cleaning teeth – five litres per brush.
• Shower: eight minutes under ordinary shower head – 120 litres. Eight minutes under water-efficient shower head – 80 litres.
• Bath (full) – 200 litres.
• Toilet half-flush – six litres.
• Garden hose (on full) – 250 litres every five minutes.
• Dishwasher – up to 25 litres a wash.
• Washing machine: top loading – 100-200 litres. Front loading – 70-85 litres.
• Dripping tap – 60,000 litres a year.