Water New Zealand says the latest findings on drinking water safety show that many New Zealanders continue to be supplied with water that is not meeting safety standards.

Chief executive, Gillian Blythe says the findings from the Office of the Auditor General are yet another indication that some council suppliers are not investing enough to ensure safe water supply and this is putting people at risk of becoming sick. 

She says the Auditor General’s report has provided yet another wake-up call. 

“We know that there are suppliers out there that are not complying with safety standards and they need to lift their performance. 

“All suppliers need to ensure they have multi barrier protection against bacteria and protozoa contamination and this includes residual disinfection to ensure safety from treatment plants to taps. 

“The Havelock North contamination event showed us just how devastating the consequences of supplying contaminated water can be. No one wants to see a similar occurrence happen again.” 

The Auditor General's findings follows a recent report from the water services regulator, Taumata Arowai, which called on suppliers to markedly improve their compliance to assure the public that they are taking an effective multi-barrier approach to drinking water safety. 

Gillian Bythe says it’s clear that a long term lack of investment has resulted in these poor compliance results. 

“Councils need to be re-investing at least 100 percent of their depreciation and it’s disturbing that the Auditor General report has found that capital expenditure for renewals was 76 percent of depreciation in the 2022/23 year. 

This means that for every dollar of assets “rundown”, councils have reinvested 76 cents. The consequence is that asset performance will decline until a catch up of the “missing investment” occurs.

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