Frequently asked questions

Taumata Arowai is the water services regulator for Aotearoa. We’re the regulator of drinking water, with a role in relation to the environmental performance of wastewater and stormwater networks. Taumata Arowai is a standalone Crown entity with a Minister-appointed Board. Alongside the independent Board is a Māori Advisory Group (Te Puna) which advises on Māori interests and knowledge.

Every year an estimated 34,000 people across Aotearoa become ill from their drinking water, and many thousands of households must boil their water to drink it safely. The creation of Taumata Arowai is part of the government’s response to an inquiry into the Havelock North drinking water contamination which resulted in up to 8,320 campylobacteriosis illnesses and at least four deaths. The inquiry found systemic failures that mean many people do not receive reliable, safe drinking water and recommended the creation of a new drinking water regulator.

Taumata Arowai sets standards and makes sure that drinking water suppliers are satisfying their duty to provide safe drinking water. We also monitor and report on the environmental performance of wastewater and stormwater networks.

According to section 47(3), drinking water standards must not include any requirement that fluoride be added to drinking water. However, above a certain level there is a health impact from fluoride.  For this reason, both the current and draft drinking water standards have a Maximum Acceptable Value for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5mg/L. This is higher than the levels of fluoride added to drinking water for health reasons.

The Director-General of Health has the power to direct a local authority to add or not to add fluoride to drinking water (under the Health Act 1956, as amended by Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021).

No. Bottled water is not within the scope of the Water Services Act 2021.

If you were registered as a drinking water supplier immediately before 15 November 2021 when Taumata Arowai became the regulator, then your supply details were automatically transferred from the Ministry of Health's public register to our new system, called Hinekōrako. We’ll send you an email asking you to review and update your contact and supply details. This process is being phased over time due to the number of suppliers and supplies involved. If you have not heard from us you can send an email to info@taumataarowai.govt.nz with your contact information, the name of your supply and its location.

If you’re an existing drinking water supplier but were not registered with the Ministry of Health on 15 November 2021, you have plenty of time (up until 15 November 2025) to register with us. Registration is free.

All water carriers need to register with Taumata Arowai by 15 November 2022.

If you’re a new drinking water supplier looking to start providing drinking water for the first time after 15 November 2021, you will need to register with Taumata Arowai and provide a drinking water safety plan before your supply begins to operate.

If you’re currently registered as a drinking water supplier you should have submitted a Drinking Water Safety Plan to us (or alternatively comply with an Acceptable Solution) by 15 November 2022.

If you’re an existing drinking water supplier not currently registered, you have up to 15 November 2025 to register and up to 15 November 2028 to provide a Drinking Water Safety Plan under the Water Services Act 2021.

Because of the nature and risks of water carrier services, some different requirements and timelines apply. All water carriers should have submitted a Drinking Water Safety Plan by 15 November 2022.

If you’re a new drinking water supplier (or water carrier) looking to start providing drinking water for the first time after 15 November 2021, you will need to register with Taumata Arowai and provide a drinking water safety plan before your supply begins to operate.

Unregistered supplies have until late 2025 to be registered and up to late 2028 to fully comply with the Water Services Act 2021. A representative from Taumata Arowai will contact you when it’s time to register your supply, if you haven’t done so already. Registration is free.

We will seek to register supplies in a planned and coordinated way.

If you are approached by a third party who is telling you that you need to register today, please contact us for advice info@taumataarowai.govt.nz. You should satisfy yourself as to the background and expertise of anyone who contacts you offering services in relation to the registration or operation of your supply.

We've prepared guidance to assist you with Drinking Water Safety Planning, and Source Water Risk Management Planning which forms part of your overall Drinking Water Safety Plan.

There is also additional guidance and templates for smaller supplies. It's not mandatory to use these templates but you may find them useful if you supply populations of up to 500 people.

We have been taking a phased approach to inviting registered suppliers into Hinekōrako. We began with large registered drinking water suppliers in November 2021 and are working through smaller suppliers. Once your account is set up you'll be able to use Hinekōrako to submit notifications, register temporary supplies and add/permit other people in your organisation to have access to read and update this information.

We intend to have all currently registered drinking water suppliers and supplies entered into our system by early 2022.

If you have not heard from us by 30 April 2022 you can send an email to info@taumataarowai.govt.nz with your contact information, the name of your supply and its location.

The roles of Drinking Water Assessor and Drinking Water Facilitator have been disestablished under the Water Services Act 2021. We will be taking a different regulatory approach. As a supplier of drinking water, you have a duty of care to ensure that water you supply is safe to drink. If you have any questions or difficulties supplying safe drinking water, you can contact one of our Regulatory Operations Team members. We’re working closely with Drinking Water Assessors from the PHUs to learn about common needs and challenges of drinking water suppliers.

We have a Regulatory Operations Manager, and four Regulatory Operations Teams based in regional offices in Dunedin, Christchurch, Palmerston North and Hamilton. They will work with local drinking water suppliers to help them comply with the Water Services Act 2021.

Our Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement (CME) strategy for 2022 - 2025 has been published. This informs the public on how Taumata Arowai plans to utilise the range of different compliance instruments. Any regulatory interventions will be proportionate and directed to address the risk and nature of non-compliance. It will then be reviewed on a three-yearly cycle, although it can be amended at any time.  

If you own or operate a water supply that provides drinking water to more than one household, then you’re a drinking water supplier under the Water Services Act. You will need to comply with the new Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules or follow an Acceptable Solution if one is applicable to your supply type.  

The new Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules came into effect on 14 November 2022. We recognise it will not be practical for some suppliers to change their sampling and reporting routine in mid-November, so our expectation is that they will do so from 1 January 2023.  

Visit our Standards, Rules and Aesthetic Values webpage. We’re also working on guidance to help explain the Rules and how you can take them into account if you’re preparing a drinking water safety plan. 

The Rules are available right here on our website or you can contact us on info@taumataarowai.govt.nz to request a paper copy.

The new Rules have: 

• different levels of complexity to match the complexity of supplies  
• a new format, grouping rules into modules to make it easier for suppliers to find the rules that apply to their supplies  
• a greater emphasis on testing to identify and reduce risks  
• new requirements for source water testing and distribution system monitoring  
• new rules for Very Small Communities (<25 people), Small (26 – 100 people), Medium (101 – 500 people) and Large (>500) supplies  
• discontinued the DWSNZ secure bore water criteria. All water supplies will need some form of treatment unless an exemption is granted by Taumata Arowai  
• a new chemical compliance section for large (>500 people) supplies.   

Taumata Arowai will consult with the public prior to any amendments to the Rules. Please let us know if you would like to be part of any future consultation engagements by emailing us on info@taumataarowai.govt.nz  

Taumata Arowai is not able to provide funding to upgrade water supplies.   

We will review the Rules to ensure they remain fit for purpose. 

Taumata Arowai is committed to working alongside whānau, hapū and iwi Māori as the Crown’s Te Tiriti o Waitangi partner. The intention of the Taumata Arowai Board and Te Puna, our Māori Advisory Group, is to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi by ensuring we engage with whānau, hapū and iwi Māori early and meaningfully, and understand their perspectives. Taumata Arowai will develop a set of guidelines to ensure engagement and participation with whānau, hapū and iwi Māori happens early, their views are considered and their mātauranga is recognised in a way that is appropriate and meaningful.

The Government’s policy is for drinking water to be reliable and safe for everyone. This covers small water suppliers, which can include ahi kaa, marae, papakāinga and supplies to properties in rural areas. Taumata Arowai will provide support and guidance to drinking water suppliers – including marae and papakāinga – to help build capability and capacity. It has a modern regulatory tool kit that it will use to promote good practice, compliance and enforcement.

A marae will only be required to register with Taumata Arowai if the marae owns or operates a water supply that provides drinking water to others. If this is the case for your marae, then you're considered a drinking water supplier under the Water Services Act 2021 and you will need to register with Taumata Arowai. Our team can help you with this.

If you have an unregistered water supply, you have until November 2025 to register. You will have much more time, until November 2028, to fully comply with the requirements of the Water Services Act 2021. 

In the meantime, we are seeking a commitment from water supply owners to make sure the water you provide is safe. If you're unsure, consider arranging a water quality test. This will give you information about the quality of your water and you can start to plan what you might need to do to make sure your water continues to be safe to drink.

You can find out more here Am I a water supplier? | Taumata Arowai 

Under the Water Services Act 2021, all drinking water suppliers have a duty to ensure that the water provided is safe to drink.  

New Drinking Water Standards and some rules that help suppliers comply with them have been made and will came into effect on 14 November 2022.  

It's important that registered marae supplies consider the hazards and risks that might affect their supplies and that they prepare Drinking Water Safety Plans that look at how these will be dealt with.  

For registered marae, Drinking Water Safety Plans should have been submitted by 15 November 2022. For unregistered marae, the timeframe is much longer.  

There is no set format for Drinking Water Safety Plans, although we have templates and guidance that smaller suppliers may find useful. Drinking Water Safety Plans can indicate the changes that will be made over time to bring drinking water supplies into compliance with Standards and other requirements.  

Where a marae identifies that compliance will be challenging, we can help them look at the options and plan an approach that takes account of their circumstances, resources, and needs. 

Alternatively, registered marae can choose to use an Acceptable Solution if there is one that applies to their supply (like roof, bore and spring, or mixed use rural).  

These set out detailed requirements that suppliers can follow to demonstrate compliance with standards and other requirements, as a different option to preparing a Drinking Water Safety Plan. 

Unregistered marae supplies have much more time. They have until November 2025 to register and until November 2028 to fully comply with the requirements of the Water Services Act, including developing Drinking Water Safety Plans or adopting Acceptable Solutions. 

Our enforcement approach will be balanced, risk based, proportionate and consistent with our tikanga and whakapapa. We are interested in making sure suppliers understand and own their duties in relation to drinking water, particularly the fundamental requirement to supply safe drinking water. Our enforcement approach is intentionally flexible, so we can operate in a way that best achieves this from situation to situation. 

We are aware that it will be hard for some registered suppliers to comply with Drinking Water Standards, and that this will not immediately be possible for everyone. 

We will be looking to see those registered suppliers – including registered marae – have turned their minds to the hazards and risks that affect their supplies and that they have planned a reasonable approach towards the primary requirements of supplying safe, compliant drinking water. 

We will seek to understand specific challenges each supplier faces and look to engage where compliance issues are signaled, in a way consistent with their tikanga and values. We do not see our regulatory role as one-sided; instead, it involves a relationship with suppliers and each supplier’s views and voice are relevant to our regulatory decisions, consistent with principles of Te Mana o te Wai. 

While it will be up to each supplier to decide how they will go about meeting their legal duties, we have a role in helping them to do that and connecting suppliers with opportunities to access funding or other support where appropriate.  

As the regulator, we are not set up to provide funding or detailed technical services to suppliers, but we can help suppliers to navigate the sector and find people or organisations who do. 

Funding has previously been announced by the Government to support the upgrade of councils and non-council supplies (like some marae and kāinga):

• Government announces allocation of three waters funds for councils | Beehive.govt.nz  
• Government provides Three Waters support for councils | Beehive.govt.nz 

Initial estimates suggest there are approximately 75,000 unregistered suppliers across the country. This figure comes from research undertaken by BECA.

Acceptable Solutions provide an alternative option for certain supply types to meet their compliance obligations. They let water be treated at the endpoint of a supply (often at each house or building) and without residual disinfection. Some suppliers will not need to prepare a Drinking Water Safety Plan if they use an Acceptable Solution instead.  

We have prepared a set of Drinking Water Safety Planning templates and guidance for drinking water supplies supplying populations of up to 500 people. These reflect the relative scale, complexity and risk of different water supplies, and incorporate source water risk management planning.  

It is not mandatory to use these templates but you may find them useful if you operate a smaller supply.

We have a role in how certain wastewater and stormwater networks are managed, regulated and perform. This includes monitoring and reporting on environmental performance to enhance transparency and enable New Zealanders to make comparisons of performance locally, regionally, and nationally.

Wastewater and stormwater networks are defined in the Water Services Act 2021 as those networks operated by councils (or their subsidiaries), government departments, and the New Zealand Defence Force. For stormwater networks, this is further limited to networks in ‘urban’ areas.

We also do a range of things to support improvements in the environmental performance of those networks, including:

• Setting network environmental performance measures, targets, or standards
• Providing guidance such as best practice guidelines, advice and information
• Supporting the development of knowledge through research, education and training.

Taumata Arowai became the new water services regulator on 15 November 2021. While most of the Water Services Act 2021 came into effect on this day, provisions relating to wastewater and stormwater came into effect on 4 October 2023. This was when our role in relation to wastewater and stormwater commenced.

Wastewater and stormwater networks are defined in the Water Services Act 2021 as those networks operated by councils (or their subsidiaries), government departments, and the New Zealand Defence Force. For stormwater networks, this is further limited to networks in ‘urban’ areas.

Wastewater network operators can register and verify their wastewater network information in our online self-service portal called Hinekōrako. This is the home of the Public Register for Wastewater Networks.

Find out more about how to do this: Register your wastewater network | Taumata Arowai

View our guide to help you register and verify your wastewater networks.

Our Public Register of Wastewater Networks includes information on wastewater networks operated by councils or their subsidiaries, government departments and the New Zealand Defence Force. 

It currently includes a limited range of network information but will be updated with more information in the future.

Some wastewater networks may not appear in the Register yet. We are working with network operators to verify their information in the Register. The Register will show whether the information has been verified or not.

View the Public Register of Wastewater Networks.

Most drinking water in Aotearoa New Zealand is plumbosolvent. This means the water can dissolve small amounts of metals it may encounter, such as lead and copper in your plumbing fittings (like pipes and taps). Drinking water with high levels of heavy metal is a health concern. 

Drinking water suppliers have a duty to ensure that the water they supply to you complies with the Drinking Water Standards, which sets maximum levels for metals in water. However, drinking water suppliers are only responsible for drinking water quality up to the point of supply, which is normally the toby outside of your property.  

There may be metals in the plumbing within your property such as in the taps or other fixtures, which can have an impact after the water has been supplied. We recommend: 

1. When you first turn on your tap in the morning, run your tap to fill a large cup of water.   
2. Tip the cup of water down the sink 
3. You should also do this at other times when your tap has not been used for a while, like when you come back from holiday. 

This will help remove metals that might have been dissolved or absorbed from your plumbing fittings.  

Newer, better-quality fittings are likely to contain less harmful metals. If you have concerns about your fittings, seek advice from a plumber.