More New Zealanders benefiting from stronger drinking water protections
More New Zealanders have access to safer drinking water, with hundreds of thousands more people getting water from supplies that are better protected from contamination.
More New Zealanders have access to safer drinking water, with hundreds of thousands more people getting water from supplies that are better protected from contamination.
However, the Water Service Authority – Taumata Arowai says important gaps persist in many communities around the country.
The findings are set out in the Authority's Drinking Water Regulation Report 2025, released today. The report provides a national overview of drinking water safety and supplier performance. It highlights where safety is improving, where risks remain and where the Authority will focus its future regulatory efforts.
Authority Head of Operations, Steve Taylor said the report shows significant gains across much of the drinking water sector.
“Around 84% of New Zealanders receive drinking water from registered suppliers. We’re seeing real improvements in how these suppliers treat, monitor and report on their supplies.
“Suppliers are also providing stronger evidence that they are meeting their legal obligations.
"This is good progress towards our vision that everyone in New Zealand has safe drinking water every day."
During 2025, the Authority maintained its regulatory focus on council supplies that lacked basic treatment barriers against microorganisms. These include protozoal, bacterial and residual disinfection barriers.
The biggest improvement was in protection against protozoa. Compared with 2023, an additional 415,000 people were served by council supplies with protozoal treatment barriers.
These barriers help protect people from illnesses such as cryptosporidiosis. In 2023, almost 100 cases of illness were linked to the cryptosporidiosis outbreak in Queenstown. The report also identifies encouraging signs of improvement among schools that manage their own drinking water supply.
The Authority has worked closely with the Ministry of Education to lift performance. In 2025:
- self-supplied schools recorded a 16% reduction in E. coli detections compared with 2024
- long-term drinking water advisories fell from 17 to 7
- schools became more consistent in notifying the Authority when they identified an issue.
“These improvements show the value of direct engagement and persistent follow-up,” says Steve Taylor.
“Treatment barriers, regular monitoring and prompt action when something goes wrong are practical safeguards. They help prevent people from becoming sick from their drinking water.
“Many suppliers are taking positive steps to strengthen their systems and manage risks more effectively. This is good news for consumers and reflects the increasing maturity of New Zealand's drinking water system."
Despite this progress, significant gaps remain.
While most council supplies now have the basic protections expected of a modern drinking water system, 33 councils still had at least one supply missing a basic treatment barrier and 51 supplies continued to lack a protozoal barrier at the end of 2025, affecting 311,000 people.
Further progress has been made since the end of the reporting period. Improvements to water treatment, have reduced the number of people served by supplies without a protozoal barrier to 112,336.
The report also found that only 45% of large council supplies met all distribution network safety assurance requirements. This highlights the need for greater focus on keeping water safe after it leaves the treatment plant and travels through pipes and reservoirs to consumers.
Some suppliers are also not meeting their reporting requirements. The Authority expects every registered supplier to provide the required compliance reports and ensure the information is complete and accurate.
The Authority remains concerned that some 16% of the population are not served by registered supplies.
This means the Authority does not have a complete picture of how well these supplies are treating their drinking water. This can leave communities more vulnerable to waterborne illness and make it harder to identify and manage risks.
The Authority is providing guidance and taking practical action to support these suppliers provide safer drinking water.
“We will use the evidence in this report to focus our regulatory work where it will have the greatest impact on public health,” says Steve Taylor.
“This includes working with suppliers to improve treatment barriers, strengthen compliance with the Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules, address long-term consumer advisories and improve the quality of the information we rely on to regulate effectively.”
The report updates progress against the Authority's Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement Strategy 2025-28, published in July 2025. The Strategy uses evidence and risk to guide regulatory work across different supplier groups.
During 2025, the Authority issued four directions requiring drinking water suppliers to take specified actions to protect drinking water safety.
The Authority is also undertaking its first prosecution for an alleged failure to comply with the duty to supply safe drinking water.
Steve Taylor says the Authority's focus remains on supporting suppliers to make progress while taking stronger action when serious risks are not being addressed.
“We focus our efforts on the suppliers, issues and practices that pose the greatest risks to public health.
“We will continue to encourage and support suppliers to put the necessary protections in place. However, where serious or repeated risks are not being addressed, we will use proportionate levers to require action.”
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