Written by Simon Drew, National Water Manager, Fulton Hogan.

Water reform in New Zealand is entering a critical early stage.

Across Aotearoa, the new legislative and regulatory framework requires new water services entities to stand up safe, compliant water quickly.

Senior water leaders are facing a tough mix of challenges – inheriting fragmented assets and systems, meeting new regulatory expectations and answering to boards, elected members and communities who want visible improvement almost immediately.

In the current reform environment, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the only realistic starting point.

From my experience in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, the water reform pattern is consistent. Systems that are now held up as global exemplars didn’t jump straight to digital twins and advanced analytics.

They started by walking – stabilising service, meeting regulatory requirements and improving data quality then moved to jogging – standardisation and integration and only later started running – optimisation.

We’re at that walk stage and that’s OK.

The water sector must build a MVP that can grow – getting the basics in place while making a few key decisions that keep the door open to better performance, productivity and transparency over the next decade and beyond.

The important question for our sector now is – what are the decisions we make in the walk phase that avoid boxing ourselves in later?

Designing a runway, not a dead-end.

Early decisions, especially technology, define future capability. Smart metering is a good example in Aotearoa. Starting with basic manifold meters focused on billing is appropriate at the walk stage, but systems must be able to evolve.

The smarter approach is looking ahead to the upgrade path – selecting platforms and architectures that can later support inline metering, pressure monitoring, acoustic sensing and advanced analytics without starting again.

It’s about designing a runway that allows you to accelerate when you’re ready, not locking yourself into a dead-end with nowhere to go.

Starting with essential data standards.

The same applies to data. Nobody has capacity to design a perfect national standard in year one but minimum viable data standards are essential. Data collected in 2026–27 will form the performance baseline regulators, boards and communities rely on for years.

The existing water data we manage has consistent asset hierarchies, uses shared definitions like breaks, renewals, failures and all started from a small, stable set of KPIs. Getting the data structure right now avoids costly correction later and makes future benchmarking possible.

Compliance today, productivity tomorrow.

Internationally, the data you need for compliance is largely the same data you need for improving productivity. When systems and processes are designed properly, compliance becomes a by‑product of good operations, not a bolt‑on burden.

In New Zealand, this means that the data, workflows and decision‑making we put in place now to satisfy Taumata Arowai and future economic regulation can also underpin better asset decisions, clearer trade‑offs and more transparent conversations with communities about cost and risk.

The water sector is under real pressure but that reflects our starting point.

Our Water team brings global experience and insight combined with local understanding to support clients to walk well today so we can jog – and eventually run – tomorrow.

We work alongside clients as a trusted advisor, helping them navigate reform, make practical MVP decisions and build the foundations for long-term, high-performing water services.

Walking is not standing still – it’s how durable, high‑performing water systems are built.