Registering your supply

The Water Services Act 2021outbound legally requires all drinking water supplies (other than ‘domestic self-supplies’ and ‘shared domestic supplies’ – see next section) to be registered with us and for the information we hold about your supply to be kept up to date.

If you're unsure what type of drinking water supply you provide, you can find out using this quick tool.

Note: All drinking water suppliers must make sure the water supplied to their communities is safe to drink and take immediate action if there's a reasonable likelihood that it's unsafe.

Under the Water Services Act 2021, if you're an existing drinking water supplier that was supplying water prior to 15 November 2021 but weren't registered with the Ministry of Health, you have until 15 November 2028 to register with us. Registering by then will ensure you're compliant with a key requirement of the Act. You don't need to be compliant with all other relevant parts of the Act until 2030 but you must still ensure you provide safe drinking water to the people connected to your supply.

Further information on the legislative changes that have given unregistered supplies more time to register with us can be found here.

Supplies of drinking water to a single, stand-alone domestic dwelling (we call these ‘domestic self-supplies’) and supplies of drinking water to 25 or fewer people who live in domestic dwellings on the land that receives the water (we call these ‘shared domestic supplies’) do not need to be registered under the Water Services Act 2021. 

Learn more these supplies on the domestic self-supply or shared domestic supply page.

Note: Drinking water supplies that serve 25 or fewer people for non-residential purposes – such as commercial, industrial or community uses – must still register and meet the other requirements of the Act, although they are not required to have a drinking water safety plan. 

Learn more about these supplies on the very small community supply page.

The owner of a drinking water supply is responsible for ensuring the supply is registered in Hinekōrako. The owner is the person (or people or organisation) with effective control of the supply. Some supplies will have one clear owner while others may have multiple owners.

The owner can delegate the registration process to an agent or someone else who may be the supply operator. However, the owner remains responsible for the accuracy of the information provided in the registration application and for ensuring details are kept up to date.

More information about roles and responsibilities is provided in the Hinekōrako guidance accessed from the following section.

Hinekōrako is our online self-service portal where you register and manage information about your supply. There are different registration requirements for different types of supply (summarised below).

We’ve prepared guidance to help you register and manage a supply in Hinekōrako for each of these supply types. You can access this guidance using the links under each of the subheadings below.

New drinking water supplies (other than water carriers and temporary supplies for planned events)

The owner of a new drinking water supply is required to register the supply in Hinekōrako before they start operating.

Apply to register now using this form: application to register a water supply

The owner of a new supply is also required to prepare and submit a drinking water safety plan via Hinekōrako, unless you’re adopting an Acceptable Solution to comply with requirements of the Water Services Act 2021. These requirements, and options for meeting them, vary depending on the size and type of your supply. You can find out more and work out what type of supply you provide on the for drinking water suppliers page.