Safe Drinking-water - A paper to local governmentDate of publication: July 2000
Introduction
Safe drinking-water is fundamental to public health. Territorial authorities (TAs) and the Ministry of Health share a responsibility for making sure all communities have safe and adequate water to drink.
Communities are now better informed about the composition and quality of their drinking-water supplies, and are seeking greater assurance from elected officials that improvements will be made.
There are a number of approaches to improving drinking-water. Since not all approaches to improvements are feasible in the short to medium term, the Ministry proposes a new framework to replace the present mix of regulatory and non-regulatory mechanisms aimed at reducing the risk of unsafe drinking-water supplies. The Ministry would be grateful for your comments as representatives of local authorities on the proposed framework.
The new framework would protect and improve drinking-water quality, but might also impose increased costs for small- to medium-sized supplies, as these supplies are least likely to be already complying with the voluntary Drinking-Water Standards for New Zealand 1995. The Ministry proposes to lessen any additional burden this may impose by gradually applying the conditions to the various sized communities.
This paper describes the current approach to drinking-water regulation, the problems with that approach, and the proposed framework.
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