3-Water Reveiw Implications for Drinking Water Monitoring
Drinking Water Quality Monitoring
The uncertainty around the future of council drinking water monitoring programmes eased in November 2018 with the release of the government’s 3-waters review summary. This review also has implications for council wastewater and stormwater management, and provides an overview of broader changes to the sector that we can expect to see over the coming years. The most pressing of these changes relate to the recent updates to the New Zealand Drinking Water Standards (NZDWS) which were released in December, in partnership with this review process.
The new NZDWS states that from the 1st of April 2019, all drinking water quality monitoring will require samples to be tested for e. coli and total coliforms using an enumeration/count method, rather than the presence/absence method for e. coli that is use by some councils currently. The idea being that monitoring of total coliforms in drinking water could provide an indication of the overall condition of the drinking water supply system. As one of the largest laboratories in New Zealand serving the council 3-waters sector, we are well placed to accommodate these changes through our network of laboratories in New Zealand.
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