Water supply and sanitation in New Zealand

New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... : Water and Sanitation

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! style="text-align:center; background:lightblue;" colspan="3"|Data
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Water coverage (broad definition)
|valign="top"| 100%
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Sanitation coverage (broad definition)
|valign="top"| 100%
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Continuity of supply (%)
|valign="top"| Continuous
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Average residential water use (l/p/d)
|valign="top"| n/a)
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Average domestic water and sewer bill
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Share of household metering
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Annual investment in WSS
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Share of self-financing by utilities
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Share of tax-financing
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Share of external financing
|valign="top"| n/a
|-
! style="text-align:center; background:lightblue;" colspan="3"|Institutions
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Decentralisation to Regional Government
|valign="top"|
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|
|valign="top"|
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Water and sanitation regulator
|valign="top"| No
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! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Responsibility for policy setting
|valign="top"|
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Sector law
|valign="top"|
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Number of urban service providers
|valign="top"|
|-
! style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;"|Number of rural service providers
|valign="top"| n/a
|}

Water supply and sanitation in New Zealand is organised and managed by the fourteen Regional Authorities as individual entities and is universal and of good quality in urban areas.

Resources

New Zealand enjoys high rainfall , especially along its west coast and the country is notable for its many large, and sometimes braided

Braided

Braided is a musical group consisting of Casey LeBlanc, Ashley Leitao, and Amber Fleury, who all competed on the third season of Canadian Idol in 2005. They are the third music group to come from an Idol show in the world, second being Young Divas from Australia and first being Feminnem from Croatia...

rivers. However, although the population is relatively small, the population density in North Island is much greater than in South Island where most of the rain falls.

In rural communities, it remains common-place for houses to be served by their own private supply - usually by the collection of rain

Rain

Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...

-water from roofs. This practice is not constrained by any regulations.

Sanitation

All significant sized urban developments are served by municipal sewer

Sewer

Sewer may refer to:* Part of sewerage, the infrastructure that conveys sewage*Effluent sewer, a collection system that transports only the liquid portion of wastewater through small-diameter pipes laid at contour...

s which drain to modern treatment works with final discharges to river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

or the the sea

Sea

A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...

. Rural communities and isolated housing is served by septic tanks or by chemical toilets or earth closets depending on location and usage.
Discharge locations for all of New Zealand's waste water treatment plants are

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

Groundwater

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...

Lake

A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...

Land

Land may refer to:*The part of the Earth that is not covered by water**Ecoregion*Landscape*Landform, physical feature comprises a geomorphological unit*Land , a factor of production comprising all naturally occurring resources*Land law...

Long Sea Outfall 22

Near Shore Outfall 7

River/stream/drain

River

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

Water supply

The low level of water pollution

Water pollution

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds....

and the relative abundance of rain-fall ensures that water shortages are relatively uncommon. Regional authorities provide abstraction, treatment and distribution infrastructure to most developed areas. Some systems such as that serving Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

was of sufficiently good quality than no disinfection of final water was practised until the recent earthquake events.

Water supply is organised by District Councils and Unitary Authorities.

Domestic water usage demand is relatively poorly documented with few authorities collecting relevant or reliable information and several relying exclusively on abstraction volumes as a surrogate for use.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.