Notifiable risks or hazards

Overview

Taumata Arowai is the water services regulator for Aotearoa New Zealand, working to ensure everyone has access to a safe and reliable supply of drinking water every day. To help realise this goal, it is important that Taumata Arowai is aware of issues that could affect the safety of drinking water being supplied to consumers, its sufficiency, its compliance and its acceptability in terms of its aesthetic properties (like taste, clarity and odour). Accordingly, the Water Services Act 2021 (the Act), includes a number of notification requirements. Drinking water suppliers must notify Taumata Arowai when:

• the drinking water they supply is or may be unsafe (s 21(2)(b))
• the drinking water they’re supplying does not comply with the drinking water standards (s 22(2)(b))
• they can’t provide a sufficient quantity of drinking water (s 26(1)(a)).

The Act also requires drinking water suppliers to immediately notify Taumata Arowai when they become aware of a ‘notifiable risk or hazard’ (s 35(2)(b)). These are declared by Taumata Arowai and identify risks or hazards that relate to or affect the supply of drinking water. Taumata Arowai is yet to declare any notifiable risks or hazards. The purpose of this consultation is to seek feedback on a proposed list of notifiable risks or hazards.

We recommend that you read the Notifiable risks or hazards discussion document before responding to the questions contained in the survey.

Why your views matter

We will use your feedback to refine the proposed list of notifiable risks and hazards.

Submissions are open from 10 November to 7 December 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.  

This engagement is managed by Taumata Arowai.  The technology used to host the consultation (Citizen Space) is operated by Delib. 

Any personal information you provide in a submission will be used for the purpose of this engagement, including communication with you about your submission.  Taumata Arowai will only collect information that you choose to provide and we will share only the information you have given consent to share, unless otherwise required or authorised by law.  Any demographic information collected, such as age group, ethnicity, and general location, will help Taumata Arowai to understand the range of community perspectives provided for the engagement. 

You have the right to access and correct your personal information.  If, after making your submission, you want to access your information to view it, to request a copy, or to ask for it to be corrected if you think it is wrong, please contact Taumata Arowai.  

Taumata Arowai may retain information you provide for as long administratively necessary.  

Please see the privacy statement on our website for further information Privacy, copyright and disclaimer | Taumata Arowai. 

Delib will not access your personal information unless requested to do so by Taumata Arowai, and only for the purposes of administering this site.  Some information provided by your computer when you use this website may be collected by Delib.  For example, your browser type, IP address, language preference, referring site and the date and time.  The purpose for collecting this information is to maintain the security of the website and for operating and improving the software.