For laboratories
Information for laboratories about accreditation, accessing our self-service portal and notifying us.
All registered drinking water suppliers must use an accredited laboratory to test source water, raw water and drinking water. The information below is for laboratories. If you're a drinking water supplier looking for a laboratory, go to finding and using an accredited laboratory.
Notify us
Laboratories must notify us of any drinking water sample that doesn’t comply with the Drinking Water Standards or Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules.
You must make your notification as soon as practicable after the results are known. You must also let the drinking water supplier know of the non-compliant sample. Read more about how to notify us.
Accreditation
All registered drinking water suppliers must use an accredited laboratory to test source water, raw water and drinking water.
Laboratories previously recognised by the Director-General of Health for the purposes of Part 2A of the Health Act 1956 are now accredited laboratories under the Water Services Act 2021outbound. They will continue to provide water analysis services for the sector.
Accreditation is managed through International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ). Under the Water Services Act, the Water Services Authority - Taumata Arowai (the Authority) appointed IANZ as the accreditation body for laboratories by notice in the Gazette. The Authority and IANZ have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set out roles and responsibilities in relation to the accreditation and assessment of accredited laboratories.
Requirements for laboratories
Under section 75 of the Water Services Act 2021outbound, the Water Services Authority - Taumata Arowai has prescribed by Notice the requirements relating to laboratories. The Notice is effective from 22 December 2021.
The Notice sets out the requirements for laboratories that are accredited under the IANZ Drinking Water Testing Laboratory Programme.
The requirements cover:
- Criteria and standards for accreditation
- Classes of accreditation
- Accreditation timeframe, assessment frequency, forms and procedures for accreditation
- Procedures for investigation of complaints about laboratories raised by customers of laboratories or the Water Services Authority - Taumata Arowai
- Requirements for laboratories to notify the water supplier and the Water Services Authority - Taumata Arowai of the results of analysis on source water, raw water or drinking water
- Reporting and information sharing obligations.
The Notice prescribed by the Authority is secondary legislation and a summary of that Notice is published in the Gazetteoutbounding and reporting requirements.
Hinekōrako - the self-service portal
Hinekōrako is the primary channel for laboratories to notify us of MAV exceedances.
You’ll need a RealMe® login to access Hinekōrako. If you’re unable to use Hinekōrako, please email us at opssupport@taumataarowai.govt.nz.
Hinekōrako is not a replacement for Drinking Water Online
We understand that several laboratories used Drinking Water Online (DWO) as a platform to organise sampling schedules and to store results. Hinekōrako does not offer this functionality as it’s been designed to support different legislation and a different regulatory approach. Under the Water Services Act, drinking water suppliers are responsible for ensuring compliance and for working with labs to organise sampling schedules.
Hinekōrako has been designed to receive and store notifications and contact details but not to manage supplies or schedule sampling.