Drinking Water Acceptable Solution for Rural Agricultural Water Supplies

Overview

Rural agricultural drinking water supplies primarily provide stock water or irrigation water and at least 65% of the total supply must be for this purpose. These supplies can also provide drinking water to houses connected to the stock water or irrigation supply, generally to a storage tank on the consumer’s property.

It is generally not economic to treat all water in a rural agricultural water supply at a centralised treatment plant. This Acceptable Solution provides a way of ensuring that households and other buildings supplied from a rural agricultural water supply receive water that complies with drinking water standards and is safe to drink.

It’s estimated there could be 300-500 rural agricultural water supplies in the country, with each one supplying between 10 to 2,500 people.

Detailed Summary

Taumata Arowai is conducting a public consultation on an Acceptable Solution for Rural Agricultural Drinking Water Supplies; that will be made under the Water Services Act 2021. 

An Acceptable Solution may provide an alternative drinking water supply option for a specified class of drinking water suppliers to comply with their drinking water obligations.  

The proposed Acceptable Solution includes the technical requirements for the treatment of drinking water for a rural agricultural drinking water supply. 

We recommend that you read the following short papers before responding to the consultation: 

Drinking Water Acceptable Solution for Rural Agricultural Water Supplies - Summary (127 KB, PDF)  

Drinking Water Acceptable Solution for Rural Agricultural Water Supplies (753 KB, PDF)   

Please note that Taumata Arowai is also consulting on:

• Drinking Water Standards
• Drinking Water Aesthetic Values
• Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules
• Drinking Water Acceptable Solution for Rural Agricultural Water Supplies
• Drinking Water Acceptable Solution for Roof Water Supplies
• Drinking Water Network Environmental Performance

Why your views matter

Your feedback will help us to shape a Drinking Water Acceptable Solution for Rural Agricultural Water Supplies for Aotearoa so that it meets the needs of drinking water suppliers.

You can have your say by reviewing the papers identified above and answering the questions relating to the proposed Acceptable Solution or providing additional comments (see link below).

Submissions are open from 17 January to 28 March 2022. You can submit:

1. by completing the online survey (link below) on this website
2. by emailing your submission to korero@taumataarowai.govt.nz, or
3. by posting your submission to:

                 Taumata Arowai, 
                 PO Box 628, Wellington 6140, 
                 New Zealand.

You do not need to answer all the questions if you are only interested in some aspects of the consultation.

Publishing submissions and Official Information Act 1982 requests

Publishing your submission

We intend to proactively publish the submissions made as part of this consultation on our website, but only if we are given permission to do so.

We may publish a summary of submissions. The summary will be aggregated to a level so that individual submissions cannot be identified.

Official Information Act requests

Your submission may be subject to requests made under the Official Information Act 1982 (even if it has not been published). We must make your submission available in response to such a request, unless we have a good reason or other administrative grounds for withholding it.

Personal details can be withheld under the Official Information Act 1982, including your name and address. If you do not want any information you provide to be released, please indicate this clearly and explain why. For example, you may wish for some information to be kept confidential because it is sensitive personal information. Taumata Arowai will take your views into account when responding to such requests.

Privacy Act 2020

The Privacy Act 2020 governs how Taumata Arowai collects, holds, uses, and discloses personal information about you and the information you provide. You have the right to access and correct your personal information.