Bill Bayfield, Chief Executive of Taumata Arowai the new
water services regulator, today announced the publication of
its first Annual Drinking Water Regulation
Report.
“While we have only been the drinking water
regulator for a short time, we are starting as we mean to go
on – by shining a light on the data,” says Mr.
Bayfield.
Mr. Bayfield said that the report is an
important tool for raising awareness about the quality and
safety of drinking water.
“More transparency is
needed, and as our reporting evolves, we will begin to
better understand the state of drinking water in Aotearoa
New Zealand,” says Mr. Bayfield.
“As the new water
services regulator, we are building a new regulatory system,
including compulsory reporting requirements. Our goal is to
lift the performance of the sector to ensure that everyone
has access to safe and reliable drinking water every day,”
says Mr. Bayfield.
This report is a combination of
data from the previous regulator the Ministry of Health and
us covering 2021. Since the regulatory responsibility for
drinking water transferred to Taumata Arowai on 15 November
2021, we have been building a better understanding of who
provides drinking water to New Zealanders. There are 997
drinking water suppliers registered with Taumata Arowai, who
own, manage, and operate 1,975 supplies which serve 85.4% of
New Zealanders.
Most New Zealanders drink water from
large council supplies (our 10 largest supplies serve 2.8
million New Zealanders). However, most supplies that
councils own, manage, and operate are much smaller. There
are only a handful of large supplies not owned by council or
government. There are many supplies which serve small
communities. These numbers highlight the need for a
proportionate regulatory system that reflects the scale,
complexity, and risk of these different
supplies.
“Our Compliance, Monitoring and
Enforcement Strategy has also just been published, which
provides suppliers with an understanding of our regulatory
approach, which takes into account the scale, complexity and
risk of the all the different supplies.”, says Mr
Bayfield.
This Drinking Water Regulation Report
references the compliance information from the final
Drinking Water Quality Annual Report 2020/21 (the 2020/21
Report) published by the Ministry of Health along with the
notifications Taumata Arowai received over a six-week period
from 15 November 2021 to 31 December 2021.
The 2020/21
Report did not include supplies of 100 people or fewer and
self-supplied buildings, unregistered supplies, and domestic
self-supplies. The 2020/21 Report told us that most
registered drinking water supplies serving most New
Zealanders (81.9% of the population) met the current
Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand 2005 (revised 2018)
(the Standards).
There were 296 supplies that did not
meet the Standards, reasons including:
• bacteria
detected which could cause immediate illness
•
chemicals detected which could cause illness over
time
• notices issued telling people to boil or not
use their water. This occurs when monitoring indicates that
water may not be safe to drink
• suppliers had not
attempted one or more of their compliance requirements or
had not attempted monitoring to take one or more of their
samples. This indicated the suppliers may not have had
sufficient people with the right skills to make sure they
provided safe drinking water
• supplies with
insufficient infrastructure to treat water to make it safe
to drink. Planning, designing, and implementing this
infrastructure will require investment from suppliers and
could take years to complete.
From 15 November 2021
until the end of the calendar year (31 December 2021), 209
notifications from 127 supplies were received – including 27
boil water notices. Notifications were from across the
country, including from 31 councils. Not all notifications
indicate that there is unsafe drinking water –
notifications are also received for planned and unplanned
interruptions or precautionary notices.
This was the
first-time notifications had been gathered from across
Aotearoa, from both registered and unregistered supplies in
real time. This level of engagement between water suppliers
and the regulator will be vital in the future to build an
effective regulatory system.
Mr. Bayfield said that he
also wanted to impress upon the sector that we have a new
and unique opportunity to do things differently with a
reporting cycle covering the calendar year January-December,
with data being collected from all registered supplies. This
will provide greater transparency of performance across the
water sector.
“A key requirement of the Water
Services Act 2021 is that everyone operating under it must
give effect to Te Mana o te Wai, to the extent it applies to
their functions and duties. This obligation applies equally
to Taumata Arowai and to all suppliers under the
Act.”
“Having access to good information will be
critical to support suppliers’ decision making that reflects
Te Mana o te Wai and investment decisions,” says Mr.
Bayfield.”
The information and insights reported on
through the Annual Drinking Water Regulation Report will
grow over time as more supplies are registered in accordance
with the Water Services Act 2021. Suppliers with supplies
that were not previously registered with the Ministry of
Health have until 15 November 2025 to do this.
All
drinking water suppliers have a duty of care to ensure that
the drinking water they provide is safe to drink. If members
of the public believe their drinking water is not safe, the
first thing they should do is raise their concern directly
with their drinking water
supplier.
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