Key points

This indicator measures the public health grading of drinking water in community supplies. Community supplies are defined as supplies that provide drinking water to 25 people for more than 60 days of a year, and includes cities, towns, camping grounds, marae and schools. Maintaining good drinking water quality is critical for human health and quality of life outcomes.

• Many drinking water community supplies are listed as having a Public Health Grading of “U”, or Ungraded.  There is a push for grading to happen annually (driven by the Ministry of Health) but this has not yet occurred. 

Public health grading for selected community water supplies by territorial authority, as at February 2012

Source: www.drinkingwater.org.nz
Note 1: Distribution Zone Grades
Zone grading (a1 to e) is based upon the microbiological and chemical quality of the water, along with the condition of the reticulation system and the quality of its care, etc. A zone grading should always be considered with the accompanying plant and source grading.
a1 Completely satisfactory, negligible level of risk, demonstrably high quality
a Completely satisfactory, extremely low level of risk
b Satisfactory, very low level of risk
c Marginally satisfactory, moderate level of risk.
d Unsatisfactory level of risk
e Unacceptable level of risk
u Not yet graded
(Not yet required if less than 500 people)
Note 2: Source and Plant Grading
Plant and source grading is based primarily on the likely health risks to the community arising from bacteria, protozoa (Giardia and Cryptosporidium) and chemical substances in the source water, and how effectively the treatment plant can act as a barrier to such contaminants passing through to the reticulation.
Possible gradings are A1 (best), then A to E. As well as appearing against each plant, each zone inherits the plant grading from the worst plant providing it with water.
A1 Completely satisfactory, negligible level of risk, demonstrably high quality
A Completely satisfactory, extremely low level of risk
B Satisfactory, very low level of risk when the water leaves the treatment plant.
C Marginally satisfactory, low level of microbiological risk when the water leaves the treatment plant, but may not be satisfactory chemically.
D Unsatisfactory level of risk
E Unacceptable level of risk
u Ungraded
Note 3: Results are shown only for communities of 500 or more people, including communities that are within the district boundary but not the Waikato Region boundary. Additional information for smaller supplies is available from www.drinkingwater.org.nz.

What agencies are doing

Information currently being collated.

What you can do to help

Information currently being collated.

More information

More detail on this indicator, including how and where this information is collected, is available here.

What we want to achieve

The community outcome we are seeking to achieve by improving drinking water quality is:

• We have reliable, efficient and well-planned infrastructure and services, including transport that is safe, interconnected, and easy to get to and use.