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Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

Structural arrangements for providing water services - Responsibility for providing water services - Territorial authority’s responsibility

10: How territorial authority ensures water services provided

You could also call this:

"How councils make sure you get water services like drinking water and sewage removal."

Illustration for Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

A territorial authority has to make sure people in its area get water services. You can get water services in several ways: the authority can provide them itself, or it can make an agreement with a water organisation to do it (check out sections 12 and 15 for more on this).

The authority can also contract someone to provide water services on its behalf (see section 22 for details), or work with others to provide water services (see section 26 for more on this). If you live in Auckland, the authority might get water services from an Auckland water organisation.

The authority can use one or more of these methods to provide water services, and it can use them for one or all parts of a water service. If the authority makes a contract or arrangement with someone to provide water services, it is still responsible for making sure you get those services, and it has to make sure the other party follows all the rules.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1004285.

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Government and voting > Local councilsHealth and wellbeing > Food and water safety
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Part 2Structural arrangements for providing water services
Responsibility for providing water services: Territorial authority’s responsibility

10How territorial authority ensures water services provided

  1. A territorial authority must ensure that water services are provided in its district in any 1 or more of the following ways:

  2. providing water services itself directly:
    1. a transfer agreement to transfer responsibility for providing water services to a water organisation (see sections 12 and 15):
      1. a contract with a person or body to provide water services on behalf of the territorial authority (see section 22):
        1. a joint water service provider arrangement (see section 26):
          1. by an Auckland water organisation (if applicable):
            1. another type of arrangement that is consistent with this Act, including receiving a transfer of responsibility for providing water services from the regional council (see section 41).

              1. A territorial authority may use a method listed in subsection (1) for providing—

              2. 1 or more water services; or
                1. any or all aspects of a water service.

                  1. Subsection (4) applies to a territorial authority that enters into a contract or an arrangement under subsection (1)(c), (d), or (f).

                  2. The territorial authority—

                  3. continues to be responsible, as the water service provider under this Act, for ensuring the provision of the water services to which the contract or arrangement relates; and
                    1. must ensure that the other party to the contract or arrangement performs and exercises all regulatory requirements associated with providing the water services to which the contract or arrangement relates.