Work is well underway with our programme to upgrade ten water treatment facilities across our district.

The first to be upgraded is our Whitianga water treatment plant, where Masons Engineers has been building a new $2.8 million water treatment facility on the current site.This is a brand new plant (pictured below), with the latest technology and methodologies for treating our water. Good progress has been made and this is on track for completion in May.

Tairua is the next town on the schedule and Masons Engineers has also been appointed for the works to replace the water treatment plant, expected to start in June, followed by Pauanui. The upgrade schedule will then continue to the water treatment facilities at Whangamata, Coromandel Town, Matarangi, Hahei and Onemana.

All of these upgrades will ensure our drinking water quality complies with the 2005 (2008) NZ Drinking Water standards. For more information on our compliance with the government’s new testing regime see here.

"We're being proactive about what we need to do to keep improving the quality of our drinking water supplies and we have budgeted $15.83 million in the 2018-2028 Long Term Plan for the upgrade programme, which will take three years through to June 2021," says our Mayor Sandra Goudie.

"This is a significant investment to become compliant and so our communities benefit from improved quality of drinking water and public health," Mayor Sandra says.

Five of the drinking water plants that treat river-supplied water (Coromandel Town, Thames, Tairua, Whitianga, Matarangi), will use membrane filtration technology, the highest-quality treatment available for this type of water source. The Memcor brand membranes are being supplied by Evoqua Water Technologies. The other five drinking water plants will use filter/cartridge system for treating bore-supplied water.

The drinking water treatment plant at Thames was upgraded more recently than the other plants, and is not due for an upgrade as part of this project.

You can stay updated on our progress on our project page here.

Celebrating World Water Day
Today is the United Nations' (UN) World Water Day, which is held on March 22 each year with events taking place in many different countries to increase people's awareness of water's importance in environment, agriculture, health and trade. Find out more about World Water Day here.

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