More drinking water suppliers are failing standards, according to data released by the new drinking water agency Taumata Arowai.
It’s the first report for the agency, which with a new role as a regulator has tougher regulatory powers than the Health Ministry previously had.
The 2020/21 report found 81.9% of the population had water that met the required standards.
But there were 296 suppliers that did not meet the standards, mainly for reasons such as issuing boil water notices, insufficient infrastructure or the water contained chemicals or bacteria that could create illness.
In the last month of 2021, there were 209 notifications to Taumata Arowai, including 27 boil water notices. Those were from all over the country, including 37 councils.
This was the first time notifications came from across Aotearoa and from both registered and unregistered supplies, in real time.
There are 75,000 unregulated or unknown suppliers providing water to about 14% of the population and the agency says it wants to find out more about them.
This year alone, there have been 706 notifications to the agency.
Taumata Arowai's head of regulatory Ray McMilllan says that’s slightly above what it has been in previous years.
“The real key for us going forward is that we’ll know that in real time and will be able to respond if we need to,” he told 1News.
Chief executive Bill Bayfield says: “It’s a very good tool that’s being built into the act where someone takes a sample, it goes to the laboratory and if they get a test back that tells them they are failed, the law tells them they are required to send it to us.
"So I think we are likely to see emerging over the next few months a much better record or identification of who is struggling to meet drinking water standards and it’ll be right across the whole sector so it’ll be small suppliers up to large suppliers, so we’re looking forward to looking at that information.
“I think over the coming year we’ll be able to gather a much robust sense of numbers that will tell us which people in NZ might be drinking non-compliant drinking water."
Those suppliers who have not previously registered with the Health Ministry have until November 2025 to do so.
Suppliers can be as large as councils, or as small as individual bores or tank supplies.
SHARE ME