Possibilities for a central South Island water entity encompassing rural Otago and South Canterbury under Local Water Done Well are in the mix.
Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher suggested an entity just including Waitaki, Central Otago, Clutha and Gore is by no means set in stone, following a meeting between rural Otago mayors and the minister of local government last week.
He said the cost impact on local government from the official auditing requirement, and regional deals were also canvassed in a meeting between Local Government Minister Simon Watts and some Otago mayors last Wednesday.
Mr Kircher described the catchup of mayors in Queenstown as "worthwhile".
The minister was very pleased to hear of the co-operation in the region for a potential entity managing water assets, he said.
At the same time, he was "equally realistic" if some potential partner councils wanted to explore other possibilities, Mr Kircher said.
That followed an offer for Department of Internal Affairs support for the Otago councils as the September deadline drew near, he said.
Mr Kircher said there was "no indication" the DIA’s involvement would entail "a desire to direct" the councils to a particular outcome.
Waitaki District Council is also in discussions with Waimate, Timaru and Mackenzie councils for an alternative water entity group, he said.
But the discussions encompassing Waitaki, Central Otago, Clutha and Gore showed "probably the best co-operation in the South Island" at this stage.
"We’re all quite similar councils — population sizes, our rural-urban mix — and as far as the four mayors go, we’re really going into it with a selfless approach."
All were "strongly focused" on the best benefit to ratepayers, Mr Kircher said.
Each potential partner council had or was about to ratify the proposed council controlled organisation (CCO) structure for the Otago group.
Both Gore and Clutha gave the go-ahead to go to the next stage at their council meetings last week, while Central Otago was considering its position today.
Gore District Mayor Ben Bell said Mr Watts was was open to hearing what the group was up to and listening to its concerns.
"I expressed mine regarding cities kind of doing their own thing and us rural ones sticking together, but he’s really open to working with us which is fantastic to hear," Mr Bell said.
"The ethos around the table is good. We’re really keen on partnership and working together and hopefully have a couple of extra councils join us too.
"It’s just the numbers, working through those, and being able to present those numbers to the community as to whether or not we proceed with working together.
"It’s not that we will join together — it’s we’re investigating joining together."
Waitaki was working closely with the South Canterbury group of three councils for a potential CCO.
Mr Kircher said he could foresee those councils "potentially" coming across the border and joining Otago in a bigger entity.
He believed there was a degree of natural synergy across the regional border for a larger entity to emerge.
Mr Kircher said those "with an unrealistic view" of going it alone for water did not have that luxury given the burgeoning costs for new water assets.
Scale, through a joint entity, could help decrease overall costs to ratepayers, he said.
