It also hasn’t rolled out a Three Waters leak repair service, despite assertions by members of a local Facebook group.
The New Zealand Centre for Political Research (NZCPR) Facebook group lit up a couple of weeks ago after an eagle-eyed snapper captured a photo of a car with supposed Three Waters branding on it.
“How is this even possible?” the poster implored.
“Saw this today coming to fix a water leak on the footpath,” they went on. “Three Waters car and a ‘temp fix by Watercare’ stamp on the work done. The vehicle is branded Three Waters already”. If you look at the image the branding doesn’t say Three Waters, but 3Waters.
The car belongs to 3Waters Water & Drainage Services. It’s a private commercial business that specialises in small to medium plumbing projects, installation, maintenance and repairs. In an email to The Spinoff today, the company confirmed they have no affiliation with the New Zealand government’s Three Waters reform and “just happen to have a similar name”.
The NZCPR group hosts a range of anti-government and anti-Māori commentary. Recent posts have cast doubt on Niwa’s credibility and connected the tragic murder of a young man in Beach Haven to the award-winning work of poet Tusiata Avia.
Comments on the 3Waters car post included: “That is so blatant. This government and its stealth has to go” and “New Zealand is done”. The thread descended into anti-Māori commentary and accusations of corruption.
Valiant attempts by some NZCPR members to disprove the claims by posting a link to the company’s website were largely ignored. A commenter who did respond suggested it was still somehow related to the government’s reform programme — “a cousin, perhaps”— because they were doing repairs for Watercare, a council controlled organisation in Auckland.
A 3Waters spokesperson confirmed to The Spinoff that the company was founded four years ago and have been working as a Watercare sub-contractor for two years. The New Zealand Companies Office companies register lists their date of incorporation as December 6, 2018. Their domain name was registered on December 11, 2018. The government launched the Three Waters reform programme in July 2020. This information is all publicly available on the same internet that hosts Facebook.
3Waters, the water and drainage services company, also said the stamp on the footpath is there “to show that a temporary reinstatement has been put in place after a repair work has been completed”.
