Tauranga water safe to drink

Tauranga City Council is assuring the community that the city's drinking water supply is safe for consumption.

Communities across New Zealand have questioned the safety of their supplies after thousands of people in the Hawke's Bay region were struck down with a gastro illness caused by campylobacter from a contaminated Havelock North water supply.


Tauranga City Council's water supply manager Peter Bahrs. File Photo.

On average Tauranga uses 36 million litres of water per day, while in summer this can rise to 54 million litres per day. Twenty reservoirs and tanks hold the city's supply, which is distributed to urban and rural properties over a 1200 kilometre system of pipes.

Tauranga City Council's water supply manager Peter Bahrs says the processes for collecting and treating water are very different in Tauranga from those in Havelock North.

He says in Havelock North water comes from underground aquifers, is pumped from bores and is untreated except for the addition of fluoride.

'In Tauranga, the water is pumped from two spring-fed surface water streams, and treated at Tauranga City Council's two treatment plants using microfiltration. After this, chlorine is added to disinfect the water.”

The two streams where water is collected from are the Tautau and Waiorohi streams and is sent to both the Oropi and Joyce Road water processing plants, where it's treated through a combination of microfiltration and chlorination.

Peter says this is a well-recognised treatment process for providing water suitable for public consumption by removing any harmful organisms including Campylobacte.

Tauranga's water is also sampled throughout the city at various distribution points and tested for chlorine levels and bacterial contamination on a regular basis to meet the requirements of the New Zealand Drinking Water Standard.

The water delivered from each treatment plant is sampled about 20 times per month for this testing by TCC's laboratory which is International Academy of New Zealand accredited, adds Peter.

'In addition, the chlorine leaving the treatment plants is continuously monitored to ensure water is sufficiently disinfected during its journey to the customers' taps.”

Council is also planning to build a third micro-filtration water processing plant along Te Puke's Waiari Stream to help keep up with the demands of the city.

For more information visit the Tauranga City Council's Water Supply webpage.


Tauranga City Council says the community need not fear the drinking water. File Photo.

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1 comment

Great news

Posted on 26-08-2016 17:12 | By lpm67

Nice to know our water is safe to drink even though it tastes horrible. But I do have a question...why is the water not independently tested?


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