The council has implied this is evidence of the entities needing to be propped up, suggesting "the model itself cannot achieve the efficiencies that have been assured".
"To simply transfer the financial burden to the ratepayer is unacceptable," it said.
The council yesterday unanimously approved a draft submission to Parliament’s finance and expenditure select committee about the Water Services Legislation Bill and the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill.
They are designed to empower the large water entities that would take over functions from councils while curbing problems that might arise from the organisations having significant market power.
Councillors — fed up about making submissions on Three Waters reform when previous efforts seemed to make little difference — were irate yesterday about ways Dunedin might be compromised by reform.
The latest submission covered what they described as disregard of local voices and potential harm for the way city development was planned.
They remained deeply sceptical about the extent of benefits from reform, perturbed by elements of the case that had been made for it and worried about what they called gaps in information.
In material about the reform programme, the Department of Internal Affairs said a series of reports augmented by economic modelling put the cost of a future-proofed Three Waters service nationally at "somewhere between $120 billion and $185 billion nationally, over and above already planned investment, in the next 30 years".
Cr Jim O’Malley said officials had used numbers designed to frighten people.
He argued promised savings from the new model would not happen, leaving consumers with higher bills at the same time as diminished local input.
He urged the Government to have a rethink.
"Slow down, because you’re going into a hairpin turn too fast.
"In fact, stop."
Cr Mandy Mayhem said the biggest gap was "removal of our local voice".
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said the Government’s programme was unacceptable.
Cr Steve Walker said he was worried about a scenario where the cost of putting pipes in the ground would dictate where urban areas grew.
Though frustrated by the Government’s programme, Cr Walker said the National Party’s alternative was lightweight.
Deputy mayor Sophie Barker added her voice to concern about planning processes.
"Who really wants our city to be planned from some bungling, bureaucratic power that lives somewhere else, that we have little input into?"
Cr Lee Vandervis said the Labour Government had misled councils over their ability to opt in or out of reforms, before opting for compulsion, and it had made misleading statements about ownership or control of assets and the safety of council-provided reticulated drinking water.
"With this Bill, Dunedin ratepayers are being looted of their $3 billion water asset."
