Help us clarify when downstream suppliers have responsibilities under the Water Services Act 2021

Every day, drinking water suppliers play a vital role supporting the health and wellbeing of people across New Zealand by providing them with safe, reliable drinking water. This includes downstream suppliers. 

At a high level, a downstream supplier is one that connects to another drinking water supply and then on-supplies that drinking water to others.  This high-level definition could cover many situations, but we are seeking to capture only those situations as suppliers where it is clearly contemplated by the Water Services Act 2021 (the Act) and provide guidance that gives greater clarity for suppliers.

The Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai is engaging on proposed factors and scenarios to clarify when downstream drinking water supplies exist and have responsibilities under the Act. We want your feedback.  

Some groups have told us the current settings are unclear

We’ve heard that developers of new subdivisions and operators of retirement villages, prisons, airports, ports and large industrial sites that receive water from another supplier want greater clarity on: 

• whether they are a drinking water supplier under the law
• what their responsibilities are
• the extent of an upstream supplier’s responsibilities in situations where one party provides bulk supply to another supplier for distribution to their customers.

We’ve proposed some factors and scenarios to guide decision making, and want your feedback on them

By receiving your feedback on proposed factors and scenarios for downstream suppliers, we aim to: 

• provide greater clarity about who ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ suppliers are, and their responsibilities
• discuss the factors and scenarios with the sector to see if they can be refined or added to
• enable cost-effective approaches that ensure drinking water suppliers provide good quality water to the communities they serve.  

Find out what’s proposed 

• Read the engagement document (includes questions)

Sign up for an information session

You’re invited to join us at an online information session where we’ll provide an overview of what’s proposed and answer your questions and here about your own situations:

• 4 November 12 noon-1pm – Register hereoutbound 

For those who are unable to attend, we’ll record this information session and publish it here. That way you can find out more at a time that’s convenient for you.

You can find a link to our Frequently Asked Questions below.

Have your say by 28 November, 2025 

This feedback period runs until 5:00pm, Friday 28 November 2025.  

We encourage you to provide feedback by: 

• Sending us your responses to the questions in the engagement document, or providing us with any other relevant information:  
  • by email at korero@taumataarowai.govt.nz
  • by post to Level 2, 10 Brandon Street, PO Box 628, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. 

Please include your name, or the name of your organisation, and contact details in your responses. Appendix 3 of the engagement document sets out in more detail our approach to release of information under the Official Information Act, the Privacy Act, and our approach to publication of responses.  

Questions?  

If you have questions about this engagement, or would like to talk with one of us about downstream supplies, please email us at: korero@taumataarowai.govt.nz.