KEY INSIGHTS

1. In the 2020-21 fiscal year, there were 485 registered networked drinking water supplies in New Zealand that served populations of more than 100 people, but 444 (92%) of them are classified as Small, Minor, or Medium and serve 634,000 (12%) of the population:
   • Large (more than 10,000 people) = 41 supplies (8.5%) serving 3,568,000 (69.7%) of the population
   • Medium (5,001 to 10,000 people) = 30 supplies (6.2%) serving 206,000 (4.0) of the population
   • Minor (5,001 to 10,000 people) = 190 supplies (39.2%) serving 371,000 (7.2%) of the population
   • Small (101 to 500 people) = 224 supplies (46.2%) serving 57,000 (1.1%) of the population
   • Other (These supplies consist mostly of self-supplies (rainwater tanks and bores) and very small community supplies) = an unknown number serving 921,000 (18.0%) of the population
2. To fully comply with the drinking water quality Standards, a supply must comply with the bacteriological, protozoa, and chemical requirements, which includes following the prescribed sampling and monitoring schedule. In the 2020-21 reporting period, there is a significant difference in compliance between Large supplies, like Watercare serving 1.37 million population in Auckland City, and the compliance of Small, Minor, and Medium supplies:
   • Large = 84.4% overall compliance with the Standards
   • Medium = 40.2%
   • Minor = 44.8%
   • Small = 30.9%
3. Watercare managed to achieve a perfect 100% compliance score across all three Standards for all water supplies of all sizes:
   • Auckland = 1,373,739 population
   • Bombay = 609 population
   • Helensville/Parakai = 4,579 population
   • Huia Village = 597 population
   • Muriwai = 563 population
   • Snells/Algies = 4,664 population
   • Waiuku = 8,697 population
   • Warkworth = 4,111 population
   • Wellsford/Te Hana = 2,114 population

KEY QUESTIONS

1. Given the significantly higher compliance standards of Large supplies, especially 100% performers like Watercare, should those operations be forced into the four new Water Services Entities?
2. How do we best help Small, Minor, and Medium supplies that are struggling to achieve high compliance standards?
3. How has Watercare managed to achieve 100% compliance across Large and Small supplies alike? How can that expertise be applied to others?

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Full data analysis
Please contact us if you would like the full analysis.

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Notes:

• From the report:
  • “This report summarises drinking-water compliance for the 485 registered networked drinking-water supplies that served populations of more than 100 people in the compliance period from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021. The supplies provide water to 4,202,000 people in total.”
  • “This report describes the compliance of the supplies with the drinking-water requirements of the Health Act 1956 (the Act) and the Drinking-water Standards for New Zealand 2005 (revised 2018) (the Standards).”
  • “The Act groups drinking-water supplies into categories according to the size of the population served. The four supply size categories used in this report are large (more than 10,000 people), medium (5,001 to 10,000 people), minor (501 to 5,000 people) and small (101 to 500 people).”
  • “To fully comply with the Standards, a supply must comply with the bacteriological, protozoal and chemical requirements, which includes following the prescribed sampling and monitoring schedule. In the reporting period, 78 percent of the report population (3,155,000 people) received drinking-water that complied with all the Standards, which is a decrease of 0.6 percent compared with the previous reporting
    period.”
  • “Compliance with the Standards was generally highest for the large suppliers, and decreased progressively through suppliers in medium, minor and small population supply size categories.”
• The graph above focuses on only compliance with the drinking water quality Standards, not the Act. We did this as citizens are more interested in the outcomes than the process.
• We’ve used the overall Standards compliance score, which requires 100% compliance with the other three measures: bacterial, protozoal, chemical.
• Where we’ve said “92% of water supplies… serve 12% of the population”, it is more complex than this, but we felt the full explanation was too cumbersome for the graph, so have put it into the explanatory notes instead.
  • The full interpretation is “92% of registered networked drinking water supplies in New Zealand that served populations of more than 100 people… serve 12% of the population”.
  • Another way to word this is “92% of water supplies serve 15% of communities that are served by registered networked drinking water supplies to more than 100 people.”
  • We could not say “92% of water supplies serve 15% of the population” as that would not be correct. We felt it best to stick with the total population of New Zealand used in this report = 5,123,000.
  • The total number of rainwater tanks, bores, and very small community supplies <100 people are unknown, so we don’t know the total water supplies.
  • Ultimately, the key insight is the same whether 12% or 15% figures are used – most supplies are Small/Minor/Medium, serve a low percentage of the population, and achieve lower Standards compliance.
• The Ministry of Health was responsible for this reporting up until the 2020-21 fiscal year (July to June). Taumata Arowai, the new water regulator, is now responsible for these reports and will be shifting them to the calendar year. The 2022 report is due before 30 June 2023.
• 100% compliance means 100% compliance for every test of every day of the year. Just one minor non-compliance means that the supply is non-compliant for the entire year. Taumata Arowai are working on more nuanced compliance measures.
• No one from the DIA, Minister’s Office, Taumata Arowai, or 78 Councils have been able to produce any international benchmarks or comparisons. We have, therefore, assumed that no robust international benchmarks/comparison exists for the Three Waters reform.
• Taumata Arowai have said that they report the compliance with Standards, but don’t currently have any targets.
• From Taumata Arowai “Protozoa is a tricky one because it is hard to test for it, so compliance is determined based having appropriate treatment (typically UV). “
• Drinking water regulation was progressed significantly under the Health Act 2007.
• This fact covers water safety (total compliance for bacteria, protozoa, chemicals) but does not cover other areas that determine a good water system:
  • Reliability (100% supply and flow pressure)
  • Efficiency/cost
  • Environmental impacts
• All numbers are provisional and subject to revision.

Thank you to the Factors who helped pull this together.

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SOURCES:

• Annual Report on Drinking-water Quality 2020–2021 = https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/annual-report-on-drinking-water-quality-2020-2021-mar22.pdf
• Watercare data = shared privately via email.

Data published by the Ministry of Health
(c) Crown Copyright
Licensed for use under the creative commons attribution licence (BY) 4.0

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