For water organisations
Information for councils transitioning water services to water organisations
Changes to the Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025outbound mean that councils may transfer the ownership and operation of their water services to a water organisation.
Our role as a regulator
The Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai has roles in drinking water, wastewater and stormwater.
We regulate drinking water suppliers so that they meet the requirements and standards for delivering safe drinking water.
We play a role supporting improvements in the environmental performance of wastewater and stormwater networks.
Our expectations of water organisations
In line with the expectations we have set for councils, water organisations must:
- fully comply with the Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules or an Acceptable Solution and associated reporting requirements
- fully comply with New Zealand’s Drinking Water Standardsoutbound
- respond promptly to drinking water safety risks with appropriate action
- maintain robust risk management plans, including drinking water safety plans
- collect and manage data in a way that ensures complete and accurate reporting to the Authority
- inform the Authority of identified significant risk and report incidents and emergencies as they happen
- demonstrate progress towards resilience (e.g. planning for outages or significant hazardous events)
- use the consent conditions set out in the wastewater standards for new or renewed wastewater consents, unless an exception applies.
Our Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement Strategy provides a three-year action plan for how we will regulate drinking water safety. It focuses on the biggest risks and outlines what suppliers need to do to address these.
The transition phase
We aim to support councils and water organisations through the transition phase by making regulatory obligations clear and practical.
We will contact councils and water organisations directly with details of what is required in the transition process and provide resources on this page.
If you have questions in the meantime, email OperationsSupport@taumataarowai.govt.nz.
Council and water organisation transition checklists
Councils and water organisations must ensure that safe water every day for everyone remains a priority throughout the transition period. The timeframes below apply to councils and water organisations that are transitioning their water services on or near 1 July 2026.
Council checklist
Preparing for the transition to your water organisation:
- confirm with the water organisation which organisation will be paying the quarter one levy and by 15 May 2026 email us with your billing information
- by 17 June 2026, email us with details of which supplies and/or networks are transferring to water organisations
- make sure that your drinking water supply and network registration information is up to date in Hinekōrako
- ensure that any drinking water safety plans (DWSPs) and associated documentation are current.
By the date of the transition to your water organisation:
- hand over information required to ensure continuity of monthly, quarterly and annual reporting on the Network Environmental Performance Measures and Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules
- hand over drinking water safety plans, source water risk management plans and other relevant documentation to the water organisation.
Note: key records such as DWSPs that have been uploaded to Hinekōrako will be transferred to water organisations by the Authority for the supplies/networks that they relate to.
After transition to your water organisation:
- ensure that you understand your ongoing obligations under the Water Services Act 2021 and the Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025
- review your access and registration information in Hinekōrakooutbound after transition to ensure that you only have access to the records that you are retaining post-transition.
Water organisation checklist
Preparing for the transition to your water organisation:
- email us with chief executive, finance, registration and compliance contacts for your organisation
- by 15 May 2026, confirm with the water organisation which organisation will be paying the quarter one levy and (if applicable) email us with billing information
- by 17 June 2026, email us to confirm the date that supplies and/or networks will transition to the new water organisation
- by 30 June 2026, ensure payment of the quarter one levy
- email us with the required registration details for the new owner, operator, registration contact and overall supply contacts for each supply and/or network.
By the date of the transition to your water organisation:
- ensure that monthly, quarterly, annual and ongoing reporting on Network Environmental Performance Measures and Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules is submitted by the due date
- ensure that you have access to any drinking water safety plans and associated documentation.
After transition to your water organisation:
- review your access and registration and contact details in Hinekōrako after transition to ensure that your new records are set up correctly.
Upcoming important dates
15 May 2026 – Final date for providing billing information for quarter one levy
1 June 2026 – Quarter one levy invoices sent
17 June 2026 – Final date for providing registration information for confirming supplies and networks transferring 1 July 2026
30 June 2026 – Payment of quarter one levy due
1 July 2026 – Network Environmental Performance Reporting period for 2025/26 commences