It is going to be a stinking hot few days in Canterbury, which is perfect timing for the long weekend.

I see the Metservice is warning that temperatures are going to be higher than normal for our neck of the woods, which may or may not be perfect timing for the long weekend - depending on what you’re going to be getting up to.

But when things get hot, chances are we all use a bit more water. If you’ve got little kids, the paddling pool is always a winner - same with the sprinkler. Kids just love running through the sprinkler, don’t they? Not just kids, actually.

And I’ve heard all sorts of stories coming through over summer about keen gardeners in Christchurch doing things like gathering rainwater and using that so they can keep the plants hydrated without getting a hefty excess water bill from the council.

Because this month, the council’s going to be sending out its first excess water invoices.

It’s spent a while getting organised, including spending a lot more than it originally anticipated on the technology it needs to do things like read the meters and send out the invoices.

It originally budgeted $1 million. But we’re finding out today that, so far, it has spent $5 million and expects to spend another $1 million on top of that. So, by the time it’s done, one million will have become six million.

The council is bringing in the excess water use charges because it wants us to use less water. There are environmental factors there - but it also thinks that if we use less water, it may not have to spend truckloads of money over the next 10-or-so- years on water infrastructure.

It’s also been saying over the last few months that, where this sort of thing has been done elsewhere in the country, water use has dropped by 20-to-30 percent.

Which all sounds fine. But the beef I’ve still got with this new regime, is that it doesn’t treat everyone equally.

You’re probably aware of this, but in case you’re not - these charges aren’t going to apply to every household. They’re only going to apply to properties that have their own water meters.

So if you share a water meter with some of the houses around you, you can use as much water as you want and you won’t be stung for it.

And how many properties are going to be off the hook because they share a water meter? 25,000.

25,000 properties where people can use as much water as they want, with no consequences. Water the garden. As many baths and showers as they want. They can run through the sprinkler day and night.

25,000 properties out of a total of just over 110-thousand residential connections in the Christchurch City Council area. So that’s about 22 percent of places connected to the city council water supply where they won’t have to think twice about how much water they’re using.

And that, as far as I’m concerned, is where this whole thing is a complete sham.

Because, why should I pay more for my water just because my property happens to have its own water meter? When thousands of others are going to get off scot-free, simply because they share a water meter with another property. You might be one of the lucky ones.

Either way, there is no way the council should be going ahead with this until it can treat everyone the same way. And what that means - as far as I’m concerned - is ditching the whole excess water charge thing until water use at every property in the city can be measured.

Because I can’t think of any other user-pays system that is so inequitable as this one.

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