Our vision is for everyone in New Zealand to have safe drinking water when they turn on the tap. It’s a big goal that will take all of us working together across the drinking water sector to get there.
To help move toward that vision, we will release our latest Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement Strategy 2025-28 (CME) in early July 2025.
The CME is a clear, three-year action plan for how we will regulate drinking water safety. It focuses in on the biggest risks identified in the Drinking Water Regulation Report 2024 (DWRR 2024), published on 30 June 2025, and outlines what suppliers need to do to address these.
What suppliers will see in the CME
We look forward to sharing our latest CME with you in early July 2025.
As the CME responds to key risks identified in the DWRR 2024, we’ve intentionally left a little breathing space between the launch of these two documents. This approach:
- gives suppliers time to become familiar with the risks highlighted in the DWRR 2024 as these inform the CME
- avoids overloading you with information.
A high-level overview of what suppliers can expect in the upcoming CME
- The basics of safe drinking water aren’t new and will be well-known to suppliers. We’ll remain focused on suppliers improving their systems, practices and infrastructure so that everyone has safe drinking water basics in place.
- Clear expectations for suppliers – tailored to their size and risk level – so that all suppliers have certainty about what we’re focused on.
- More detailed expectations for three specific groups of suppliers to meet each year to 30 June 2028 – these focus on getting the basics of safe drinking water in place (e.g. monitoring for harmful contaminants, effectively treating the water and taking urgent action to fix issues that could put people’s health at risk.) It’s likely many suppliers will already be meeting initial expectations.
- A dedicated sector plan for self-supplied schools to inform essential work that the Ministry of Education and these schools have underway to improve drinking water safety for students and teachers. This responds directly to insights from the DWRR 2024.
- An increased focus on ensuring that prompt, practical and appropriate action is taken to effectively manage drinking water-related public health risks.
- A commitment to providing practical, how-to guidance to help make it easier for suppliers to meet their responsibilities – particularly those less familiar with drinking water treatment requirements.
- Our continued commitment to operating in a way that is proportionate, transparent, proactive and risk-based – in practice, this looks like us providing support where needed and taking appropriate action to safeguard public health when risks aren’t being adequately managed.