Regulatory action drives overall lift in drinking water safety

Water Services Authority publishes latest insights into water services performance that highlight ongoing critical infrastructure challenges

Progress in urban areas but gaps in rural water treatment and poor network knowledge continue to risk public health

Many more drinking water suppliers are now actively identifying and managing risks to drinking water safety following action taken by the Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai. Improved sector reporting also means that we have a better understanding of water network performance overall, said Authority Chief Executive Allan Prangnell.

These were among the findings of two reports the Authority published today, the Drinking Water Regulation Report 2024 and Network Environmental Performance Report 2023/24, which covers drinking water and wastewater networks.

Almost 4 million out of the 4.4 million people served by registered drinking water supplies now have access to drinking water with critical safety barriers. “This includes some suppliers that have reported the installation of barriers since the end of last year, and we know that more are on track to implement them during 2025. We expect next year’s report to show a step change in the number of supplies with basic treatment in place,” he said.

See Fact sheet for key facts and figures from both reports.

Rural schools

The reports shine a light on issues facing many rural schools. The Authority has agreed a plan with the Ministry of Education, working with rural school principals, to address long-standing drinking water safety issues at self-supplied schools. The Ministry has progressed work to install critical treatment barriers in self-supplied schools with further plans for installation in remaining schools by December 2025.

“The Ministry will need to work at pace over the next 12 months to address any outstanding and emerging treatment issues and oversee a rapid lift in capability.”

Drinking water

Mr Prangnell said that while the Authority acknowledged some progress had been made, this year’s reports had really “lifted the lid” on the concerning state of our national water infrastructure, the poor understanding many council suppliers have of their water networks, and the challenges facing many smaller, rural communities.

“The way our water networks are maintained and operated directly affects water suppliers’ ability to provide safe and sufficient drinking water. Poor maintenance results in broken pipes. This leads to both high rates of water loss as well as public health risk due to exposure to contaminants.”

The Authority will shortly publish its refreshed Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement Strategy 2025-28. This will clearly set out what the Authority expects drinking water suppliers to do over the next three years to address the most significant risks to public health.

For council supplies, the Authority’s focus remains ensuring that critical treatment barriers are in place and demonstrating they are operating effectively. These are long-standing requirements that have been in place for many decades.

“We will be checking up on this,” he said.

Mr Prangnell said the improvement in sector reporting was pleasing and more suppliers have a plan in place to provide safe drinking water. However, the prolonged use of long-term consumer advisories was of particular concern.

“Research tells us there is a steep drop-off in consumer compliance with boil water notices.

“We are actively working with suppliers who have long-term boil water notices in place on their plans to get the issues resolved.”

The Authority is giving particular attention to options for small, rural supplies where centralised treatment is impractical and/or unaffordable.

“Many unregistered community and private supplies lack access to safe drinking water, especially those in small, rural, predominantly Māori communities. We are taking a proactive approach to try to reach these communities, to ensure they have access to practical, cost-effective treatment solutions and clear guidance and support to understand the risks in their supplies and to help them take steps towards safer drinking water.”

Water network performance

The lift in reporting for this year’s Network Environmental Performance Report means the Authority has better information and a better understanding of environmental performance of the drinking water and wastewater networks. However, network operators’ understanding of some key environmental performance measures is poor, he said. For instance, around 50% of operators had problems reporting water loss and asset condition – two key performance measures – because of poor understanding or insufficient or inaccurate data.

Water loss is very high in some parts of the country. Of those that did report, 32% of operators had at least one network with the worst possible rating for water loss, according to an international index, indicating an inefficient network with poor maintenance and asset condition.

The report found a wide variation in wastewater treatment and overflow management around the country. Proposed new wastewater environmental performance standards, on which the Authority recently consulted, were coming at a critical juncture, he said.

“The confirmed standards will help bring consistency to how wastewater discharges and overflows are managed and monitored while also delivering significant cost-savings and greater certainty for network operators.”

Mr Prangnell said the data highlighted the stark difference in resourcing and capability between urban and rural networks.

“The longer that operators take to invest in improving the networks, the more these costs and risks can compound over time. Better monitoring of networks is essential for operators to prioritise and fund maintenance and renewal where it is needed most.

“Looking ahead, as councils consider arrangements under Local Water Done Well, they can be assured that we will continue to provide a nationally consistent year-on-year view of the performance of water services to owners and consumers of these services.”

More information

Last updated: 26 August 2025