Methven Primary hit with $20,000 Water Bill

I know that water is at a premium in Canterbury but this story has moved from the sublime to the ridiculous. Methven Primary School has found itself in the midst of a waterlogged mystery. The small South Island school has received a bill from the Ashburton District Council charging them $20,322.00 for water usage, an amount more than 100 times their usual annual bill of $200.

The District Council recorded usage of 27,000 cubic metres of water which resulted in the extremely high bill. But Methven Primary’s principal, Graham Smith, is quoted as saying he believes that the school, which only has around 200 pupils, could never have used so much water. Even the neighbouring community pool which is on the same water meter could not account for such a sudden increase.

The school went back to the Council believing there to be a fault with the meter. The Council checked their records and have subsequently reduced the bill – from the original $20,322 to $19,400, a saving of $922!

The Council reportedly suggested that perhaps there was a leak somewhere but there is no obvious sign of leakage. The school doesn’t know where to begin to find the $19,400 to pay the bill, as this amount is almost equivalent to the annual resource budget.

Let’s hope that commonsense will prevail and an accommodation reached. For this school at least, I suspect that the introduction of National Standards will be a breeze compared to their unanticipated financial woes.