When Taumata Arowai was established as Aotearoa New Zealand’s water services regulator in November 2021, it was estimated that around 35,000 people became sick every year from drinking tap water.
‘Kia tiakina te wai, hei oranga mo te katoa/Safe water every day for everyone’, is the simple yet crucial vision that drives Taumata Arowai, and reflects water suppliers’ fundamental responsibility to ensure drinking water is safe and that any risks are appropriately managed.
Unfortunately, we’ve been reminded recently of the significant impact that waterborne illnesses can have on our communities, especially the most vulnerable members, when essential treatment barriers aren’t in place.
The tragic 2016 Havelock North campylobacter outbreak, which prompted reforms that led to the formation of Taumata Arowai, resulted in an estimated 8000 illnesses and was linked to four deaths.
Then, in late 2023, an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Queenstown likely made more than 90 people ill, with 11 people visiting hospital emergency departments.
Taumata Arowai Head of Operations Steven Taylor says that these recent events highlight how essential a multi‑barrier water treatment approach is.
‘A key lesson from the Queenstown outbreak, like Havelock North before it, was that a multi-barrier approach is the single most effective way to avoid people getting sick from their drinking water,’ says Taylor.
‘It’s essential that suppliers have a range of safeguards in place to make drinking water safe, and to keep it safe as it travels to the people who will drink it. This is why we’re prioritising working alongside suppliers who have yet to get critical treatment barriers up and running for local communities.’
A multi-barrier approach isn’t new
For nearly 20 years, drinking water laws and rules have highlighted that a multi-barrier approach is the cornerstone of drinking water safety. In fact, the Water Services Act 2021 requires drinking water safety plans to include a multi-barrier approach to drinking water safety; however, looking at the council supplies that provide drinking water to 84 per cent of people in New Zealand, there continue to be gaps in key protections.
In June 2024, Taumata Arowai released the Drinking Water Regulation Reportfor the 2023 calendar year. It highlights that although most council supplies have protozoa and bacterial barriers in place, and use residual disinfection, about one in five drinking water treatment plants that require these critical multi-barrier protections do not currently have them in place.
Addressing critical gaps in multi‑barrier protections
Taumata Arowai began its multi-barrier project to address these gaps and get the basics of safe water in place in July 2023.
Its first step was advising all council and government drinking water suppliers, in writing, that meeting requirements to put in place foundational multi-barrier protections would be an area of focus in future.
‘We took this initial step to be up-front about our priorities early. This meant that suppliers that lacked critical barriers could start thinking about their approach to implementing these in the way that would work best for them,’ says Taylor.
While project planning was underway, in September 2023, Queenstown was impacted by a cryptosporidiosis outbreak. This reinforced the need to prioritise efforts to ensure reasonable progress is made to get essential treatment barriers in place.
With these risks top of mind for the sector, Taumata Arowai promptly wrote to 29 councils and four government suppliers about supplies that lacked a protozoa barrier, bacterial barrier, and/or residual disinfection.
Taumata Arowai asked suppliers to provide a funded plan by 30 June 2024, showing how they will implement essential barriers or adopt an ‘acceptable solution’ by 31 December 2024, or 31 December 2025 in the case of bores that require protozoa protection.
These timeframes were intended to fit with the budgeting cycle for councils across the country and provide a reasonable amount of time for suppliers to develop a plan that is right for their supplies, while also setting a clear deadline so that communities know when barriers will be in place. The letters conveyed clear timing expectations, while providing the opportunity for councils with different needs or challenges to reach out to discuss different approaches.
Following this request, Taumata Arowai operational teams reached out to suppliers as they developed their plans.
‘We are pleased with suppliers’ work to implement essential, cost-effective drinking water treatment barriers that will deliver intergenerational benefits,’ says Taylor. ‘I was particularly pleased that four of the councils we contacted in late 2023 already have key barriers up and running, and most are on track to have them in place by the end of 2025. It’s great progress.’
Taumata Arowai is now analysing the plans that suppliers provided, and are working with the very small number that are encountering challenges.
Up close: Queenstown’s cryptosporidiosis outbreak
The Queenstown cryptosporidiosis outbreak that occurred in September 2023 served as a reminder to the water sector of the critical importance of supplies having a protozoa barrier in place as part of a multi-barrier approach to drinking water safety.
Protozoa are single-celled parasites, like cryptosporidium and giardia, that can make people sick. They can be removed from water with filters or inactivated using ultraviolet (UV) light so that they don’t pose a health risk.
In September 2023, the Southern branch of the National Public Health Service (which is part of Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora) identified an increase, beyond the seasonal norm, in cryptosporidiosis cases. It then notified Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC), the drinking water supplier, and Taumata Arowai, as there was a possible link to the Queenstown drinking water supply. This followed community reports of a gastro-like illness circulating in the days and weeks before.
Following an investigation into a wide range of potential sources, coordinated between the three agencies as well as Ministry for Primary Industries, it was determined that the most likely cause was human faecal contamination of the Queenstown drinking water supply, which lacked a protozoa barrier.
Taumata Arowai served QLDC a compliance order. This required the council to keep a boil water notice in place until it had installed protozoa treatment, or was otherwise able to provide safe drinking water to local people.
Notifying and updating mana whenua in the takiwā during this response was also key for Taumata Arowai to ensure Te Tiriti obligations were upheld.
By December 2023, the compliance order, and related boil water notices imposed by QLDC, were lifted after QLDC installed temporary UV disinfection equipment at the Two Mile water treatment plant, cleaned related reservoirs, and flushed the related distribution network. QLDC is currently working on a permanent solution.
Treatment barriers are just one part of a multi-barrier approach to safe drinking water
Drinking water suppliers must use a range of processes, procedures, and tools to protect and treat water to make it safe and keep it safe as it travels to the people in the community who drink it.
Having multiple barriers and safeguards in place means that if one fails, others are there as backups to help prevent, or significantly reduce, the chance of people getting sick from their drinking water.
Treatment barriers for protozoa, bacteria and residual disinfection are essential parts of a multi-barrier approach; however, they also need to be complemented with other safeguards – such as monitoring – as part of wider drinking water safety planning.
‘We know we can’t achieve our safe water mission alone,’ says Taylor. ‘It will take all of us working together across the water sector to make it a reality. Working alongside suppliers to ensure all public supplies have the basics of safe water in place is a significant step towards a future where everyone has safe water when they turn on the tap.’
For more information, visit taumataarowai.govt.nz/multi-barrier.