Stealing water from the Waitaki District Council could soon cost those caught doing so much more.
A ''water supply tampering fee'' of $1100 is to be introduced from July 1, if it is approved as part of the council's 2013-14 annual plan and budget.
The council estimates 9% of connections to water supplies in the district could have been tampered with, equating to about 350 consumers. That is done by bypassing or altering flow restrictors, which ensure consumers receive what they are entitled to and pay for.
Various methods can be used, but all equate to ''water theft'', according to a report prepared for Tuesday's meeting of the committee of the whole.
Apart from the matter of theft, tampering could also cut or reduce supplies to consumers downstream on the same scheme, particularly if water was limited.
In the past, the council has attempted to recover the cost of identifying and rectifying tampering, but has not always been successful. It had also adopted a tougher stance. Those caught stealing water would be charged and face a criminal conviction.
The council's contracts engineer (reticulation), Caitlin Donovan, said an inspection of water supplies late last year found about 9% of connections had been tampered with.
''Extrapolating this across all restricted supplies, we could expect somewhere in the order of 350 incidents of tampering,'' she said.
Water theft remained an issue, potentially resulting in water outages, additional works to locate and rectify cases of tampering and increased costs.
In the past, only very limited cost recovery had been attempted, and the $1100 fee would get back a larger proportion of the costs involved, dramatically streamlining the process and reducing staff time.
The $1100 fee is made up of costs for contractor time, travel, materials, engineering time and enforcement time.
