At the Water Services Authority - Taumata Arowai we are committed to ensuring everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand has access to safe and reliable drinking water every day.
We play a critical role regulating drinking water suppliers to ensure they meet quality standards.
We also play a role improving the environmental performance of wastewater and stormwater networks, including setting performance measures, standards and reporting on how network operators are performing.
To learn more about Taumata Arowai visit our website.
Have Your Say
Your feedback will help to inform our decisions on the content of the documents we are consulting on.
For further information or questions about our consultations please email korero@taumataarowai.govt.nz
Proposed documents for consultation
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Consultation on Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai levy for councils and CCOs
The Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai (the Authority) and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) are consulting on proposed levies for councils and their council-controlled organisations (CCOs) to fund water services quality regulation, and economic regulation. It is proposed that councils and CCOs that deliver water services will fund the levy. For the first levy period (expected to be three years), it is intended the levies will be limited...
Closes 24 January 2025
Closed consultations
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Proposed changes to New Zealand’s Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules for supplies that serve 500 or fewer people
At Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai, we’re committed to ensuring that safe water obligations for small drinking water suppliers are cost-effective and appropriate to the supply size and level of risk. We’re undertaking a review of the Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules (the Rules) in two parts. In October, we sought your feedback on proposed changes to Rules for supplies that serve 500 or fewer people. You can view the summary of submissions here. The...
Closed 18 October 2024
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Second Tranche of Drinking Water and Wastewater Network Environmental Performance Measures
The Water Services Act 2021 includes requirements to monitor and report on the environmental performance of certain drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater suppliers and their operators. These requirements are designed to provide greater transparency about the performance of networks, the impacts they have on the environment and public health, and to contribute to the continuous and progressive improvement of the quality of water services. This discussion document provides...
Closed 9 December 2022
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Notifiable risks or hazards
Taumata Arowai is the water services regulator for Aotearoa New Zealand, working to ensure everyone has access to a safe and reliable supply of drinking water every day. To help realise this goal, it is important that Taumata Arowai is aware of issues that could affect the safety of drinking water being supplied to consumers, its sufficiency, its compliance and its acceptability in terms of its aesthetic properties (like taste, clarity and odour). Accordingly, the Water Services Act 2021...
Closed 7 December 2022
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Draft Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules (DWQAR) Reporting Guidelines
The Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules (DWQAR) require suppliers to conduct monitoring and assurance activities in relation to their registered drinking water supplies. The DWQAR Reporting Guidelines describes how monitoring and assurance reporting is proposed to be conducted and proposes the technological requirements to complete reporting. The draft Guidelines should be read in conjunction with the requirements of the DWQAR. Purpose of this engagement We are...
Closed 28 November 2022
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Drinking Water Standards
The proposed Drinking Water Standards (the Standards) will replace the existing Drinking-water Standards for New Zealand (revised 2018). They set limits for contaminants and other characteristics of drinking water. The Standards apply to all drinking water supplies regardless of the nature of the source water and the number of people served by the supply. Detailed Summary Taumata Arowai is conducting a public consultation on drinking water standards for Aotearoa;...
Closed 28 March 2022