Find out how we provide Hutt City residents with safe and reliable water.

Where your water comes from

We buy treated water from Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) and distribute it to you via our network of:

• 685 km of underground pipes
• 24 storage reservoirs
• 13 pumping stations.

Wellington Water supplies over 140 million litres (ML) of water per day (on average) to Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt, Porirua and Wellington.

The supply serves a resident population of about 400,000 which means we provide about 358 litres per resident each day, or 3-4 bathtubs each.

Not all of this water is used in homes. City council estimates show that households use a bit over 60% of our total supply. Other users include industry, businesses, schools, hospitals, the fire service and councils.We also make sure it meets the Ministry of Health’s drinking water standards.

• A1a - Completely satisfactory, negligible level of risk, demonstrably high quality
• Aa - Completely Satisfactory, Extremely low level of risk
• Bb - Satisfactory, Very low level of risk
• Cc - Acceptable, Low level of risk

Our water supply standards and commitments

We aim to provide you a first-rate and uninterrupted water supply service, and to meet the following goals:

To maintain our commitment to water safety and to maintain a safe water supply that meets New Zealand Drinking Water Standards, the water supply needs to receive at least a Bb (satisfactory, very low level of risk) grading from the Ministry of Health.

Chlorine

In August 2017, in response to concerning levels of bacterial indicators in the aquifer, the GWRC approved the ongoing chlorination of Lower Hutt drinking water.

Wellington Water sought advice from independent experts on the results of investigations into the aquifer. They advised that relying on the aquifer’s natural filtration processes is unlikely to be sufficient to manage potential public health risk.

Ultra Violet (UV) treatment

As well as continuous chlorination, Ultra Violet (UV) units are used at Waterloo Water Treatment Plant. UV treatment provides another layer of protection against potentially harmful organisms in our water supply.

Fluoride

Most of Lower Hutt's drinking water supply has added fluoride, except for Petone and Korokoro which have a long history of unfluoridated water.

Important water supply information

• The water supply to your property will be available at least 99.9% of the time.
• Interruptions to the water supply to individual properties won't exceed 24 hours at any one time.
• We'll notify property owners or occupiers affected by planned shutdowns by midday on the previous working day and by loudhailer at least five minutes before shutdown.
• We'll make reasonable efforts to notify property owners or occupiers before urgent work is carried out on private property, and we will also give written notification of the work.
• Employees and contractors of Hutt City Council and Wellington Water will carry identification: they must show it to you if they need to enter your property.
• We’ll reinstate any private property disturbed by our employees or contractors to a standard as close as practical to that existing before the work was carried out.
• We’ll help you work out the location of any public water supply pipelines within your property.

Our water supply timeframes

• We'll respond to urgent work requirements within 60 minutes (water main bursts, and significant health, safety and/or environmental risk).
• We'll respond to unavailability of water supply within two hours.
• We'll respond to non-urgent work requirements within 24 hours (non-health related or partial disruption to water supply).
• We'll respond to routine work requirements and enquiries within five working days.

For more information

Wellington Water

Ministry of Health

Contact details