The Register of Community Drinking-Water Supplies in New Zealand (the Register) is a public document. The Register is published annually in June and is available both as a printed report and as a pdf document that can be downloaded from the Ministry of Health website.
The Register provides the public with easily accessible information about community water supplies. Community drinking-water supplies are defined as drinking-water supplies that serve 25 or more people for at least 60 days a year; this includes many schools, permanent camp sites and marae.
For each supply, the Register records:
- the name of the community;
- the components of the water supply: sources, treatment plants and distribution zones;
- unique codes for each component (to aid clear identification);
- who owns and operates the water supply (names are not included for private owners); and
- how many people use the water supply.
If more than 500 people are served by the water supply, the Register also records:
- the public health grading for the supply; and
- any substances of public health significance in the supply that require monitoring (Priority 2 determinands).
Information for creating and amending the records of individual supplies is gathered by drinking-water assessors of the District Health Boards, with the close cooperation of officers of the territorial local authorities. Data is validated and entered into the Water Information New Zealand (WINZ) database system as it becomes available. The data is then extracted annually to create the Register.
The Register is maintained by ESR’s Water Management Group as part of the WINZ database system for drinking-water. This work is performed under contract to the Public Health Regulatory Services of the Ministry of Health.
ESR also manages a companion website, on behalf of the Ministry of Health. This site is updated weekly with the latest Registry-equivalent data from WINZ. In this way, users can see the Register-equivalent structure and public health grading for any community supply within days of its registration or modification.
The printed version of the Register is available in all public libraries in New Zealand.