Sydney Water fails to keep up with development demand

Sydney Water has suddenly emerged as the villain holding up attempts to solve Sydney’s housing crisis.

Premier Chris Minns came to power talking up housing. Last December, he announced his signature housing plan to rezone land for increased density around dozens of stations across Sydney. But things seem to have stopped going to plan, with developers complaining of hold-ups over provision of water and sewer capacity and some households being forced to truck wastewater out because they have no sewerage.

Sydney Water is in the firing line.Credit: Sam Mooy

To address the problems, limits were quietly imposed on Sydney Water’s charges to developers for stormwater connections, and now the Herald’s Sydney editor Michael Koziol reports that the state government has begun a shake-up of Sydney Water’s board and ordered it to “get with the program” on solving the housing crisis.

This is the second hit water authorities have endured in less than a week. WaterNSW shut down a Blue Mountains feeder dam last Wednesday when it was found to contain cancer-linked forever chemicals, after months of playing down their presence in Sydney’s water supply.

Now Water Minister Rose Jackson has publicly branded Sydney Water “a big problem” when it comes to releasing land for greenfield development, accusing it and the previous government of hugely underinvesting in capital works.

“Obviously, landowners are very frustrated and so is the government,” Jackson said. “They dragged the chain and they need to understand they are part of the government team that is delivering on our agenda for housing. They are understanding that better now.”

But the buck does not stop with Sydney Water alone.

Premier Minns staked his political future on delivering desperately needed homes. The NSW government needs to build 377,000 new homes across the state – 70 per cent of them in Sydney – by 2029 to meet its obligations under the national housing accord. To this end, in the biggest rezoning shake-up in Australian history, zoning regulations would be dramatically changed to increased density, especially around transport hubs, to create capacity. Despite the continuing political debate about housing, the crisis cannot be cured by announcements and reforming planning policies.

It is all well and good to say we have a train station and now we need houses. But we also need roads, power lines, schools, hospitals and all sorts of infrastructure that facilitate commerce and quality of life in a suburb. Water is one of the most vital.

Amid escalating tension over the state-owned corporation’s approach to enabling infrastructure for new homes, Sydney Water rejected the criticism, pointing to its $34 billion capital works program over the next decade, of which 47 per cent is targeted directly at servicing growth.

But Sydney Water has clearly failed to keep up with projected demand. Of course, it has carried out its prime function to provide water to our city. However, it cannot rest on its laurels. It has been caught flat-footed in failing to assess the investment needed to solve the housing crisis.

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