Quality and safety. Watercare’s commitment to you
Each day, Watercare supplies more than 370 million litres of quality drinking water to over half a million Auckland households. That’s enough to fill 150,000 Olympic sized swimming pools. The water that you drink each day has been quality checked at every stage of its journey to your taps. During the treatment phase, water quality is monitored 24-hours a day, 365 days per year to ensure that it is consistently safe for you to drink. Water is also regularly monitored and tested as it travels throughout the water distribution network on its way to your home, school, or business.
What we test for
Raw water is comprehensively analysed for contaminants that would be harmful or detrimental to your health. These include algae, faecal coliforms, giardia, and cryptosporidium. Safety measures that prevent contamination include temporary shut off of a particular supply. This situation occurred in 2000 when algae contaminated the Waitakere dams, and again in 2002 when a truck carrying chemicals overturned in Hamilton potentially affecting the Waikato River supply.
Did you know?
Around 70% of the earth's surface is water, yet only 2.5% is fresh water. Fresh water is either groundwater or readily accessible water in lakes, streams, rivers, etc.