The power of controlling water infrastructure

Don Brash writes:

The Prime Minister pretends that local councils will still own the water infrastructure which their ratepayers have funded but by every measure on which “ownership” is judged, this is a total nonsense: local councils will have absolutely no authority over the water infrastructure in their area. Among other things, because any new urban development is dependent on water infrastructure being put in place in a timely way, this means that the great majority of the decisions which a council makes around urban development – where roads and houses should go – will be effectively determined by the four enormous “entities” into which all water infrastructure will be grouped.

This is a very salient and important point. By giving these entities control over water, they will also have de facto control over urban development. Now if they were controlled by Councils this would not be an issue, but Councils will not have control of these entities.