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Water Services Act 2021

Provisions relating to supply of drinking water - Duties of drinking water suppliers

27: Duty to protect against risk of backflow

You could also call this:

"Water suppliers must protect you from dirty water coming back into the supply"

Illustration for Water Services Act 2021

You get drinking water from a supplier. They must protect you from backflow. They do this by making sure the water supply is safe. If there is a risk of backflow, the supplier can install a device to stop it. You might have a device installed at your place to stop backflow. The supplier can ask you to pay for it or to install one yourself. You must make sure the device works properly and does not affect your fire extinguisher system. The person who installs the device must ensure it works correctly. They must also make sure it does not stop your fire extinguisher system from working. You can compare this to an older law if you want to learn more.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS374699.

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Topics:
Health and wellbeing > Public healthEnvironment and resources > Water safety
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Part 2Provisions relating to supply of drinking water
Duties of drinking water suppliers

27Duty to protect against risk of backflow

  1. If a drinking water supply includes reticulation, the drinking water supplier must ensure that the supply arrangements protect against the risk of backflow.

  2. If there is a risk of backflow in a reticulated drinking water supply, the drinking water supplier may—

  3. install a backflow prevention device and require the owner of the premises to reimburse the supplier for the cost of installation, maintenance, and ongoing testing of the device; or
    1. require the owner of the premises to install, maintain, and test a backflow prevention device that incorporates a verifiable monitoring system in accordance with any requirements imposed by the supplier.

      1. A person who installs a backflow protection device must take all reasonable steps to ensure it operates in a way that does not compromise the operation of any fire extinguisher system connected to the drinking water supply.

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