Generic water into glass Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
More than 227,000 people now have access to safer drinking water but more work is needed to reduce the risk of waterborne illness, the regulator says.
In 2023, Taumata Arowai found drinking water supplies for about 655,000 people lacked the right treatment barriers, prompting the authority to tell suppliers, including councils, to fix the problem.
Head of operations Steve Taylor said significant progress had been made to get treatment barriers in place and improve drinking water safety.
Local and central government were the country's biggest drinking water providers, with councils collectively supplying water for approximately 4.4 million people.
As of early this month, 14 councils overseeing 41 drinking water supplies had critical barriers working.
Eight councils had installed all the necessary barriers across their supplies.
Taylor said suppliers serving 430,000 people were on track to install their critical barriers by this year's deadline.
"Our focus is on ensuring that the public is provided with safe drinking water. It's very good to see the headway that suppliers have made towards this. We appreciate the work put in by councils to make this happen," he said.
The lack of a protozoa barrier was identified as a likely factor in Queenstown's cryptosporidiosis outbreak in 2023, which has since been installed.
"Having multiple barriers in place means that if one fails, others are there as back-ups to help prevent, or reduce, the chance of public health being impacted," Taylor said.
