The minister was in Queenstown yesterday at a gathering of South Island councils and said a range of views remained.
However, an infrastructure deficit was evident, there was strong acceptance upgrades were needed and the question now was how they might be paid for, he said.
The Government had proposed four large entities to take over water services from councils, taking advantage of economies of scale, and last week it increased the proposed number of entities to facilitate a regional approach.
Otago and Southland would be covered by one of the entities.
The Government’s programme was not universally popular, but Mr McAnulty said he got the sense there was significantly more support from councils for the revised model than for what was proposed previously.
One adjustment to the reforms was pushing out the start date of entities by up to two years.
Mr McAnulty said there was discussion yesterday about entities being allowed to "go early", rather than being part of an extended transition.
He was open to this possibility.
Entities might also choose to merge, resulting in cost efficiencies.
Councils have historically provided water services for many communities, but concerns about the system have included what the minister has described as variable service quality and sustained underinvestment.
Mr McAnulty said it was clear the status quo was not sustainable and yet this was essentially what the National Party was offering as an alternative to the Government’s model.
Putting water reform on the Government’s policy bonfire would have been the easy choice, but pressing on was urgent, he said.
