Water supply

Some plumbing fittings have the potential to allow minute traces of metals to accumulate in water standing in the fittings for several hours.

Although the health risk is small, it is recommended you flush a mugful of water from your drinking-water tap each morning before use to remove any metals which may have dissolved from the plumbing fittings.

Southland District Council recommends this simple precaution for all households, including those on public and private water supplies.

Drinking water supplies are an important part of any community. We own and manage 10 drinking water supplies, two drinking water/stock water supplies and nine stock water supplies.

Drinking water supplies:

• Edendale/Wyndham
• Manapouri
• Mossburn
• Ohai
• Orawia
• Otautau
• Riverton
• Te Anau
• Tuatapere and
• Winton.

Drinking water/ stock water supplies:

• Lumsden/Balfour
• Eastern Bush/Otahu Flat

The stock water supply schemes are only for stock water. They are not for human consumption.

These schemes are non-treated water supplies.

Each property pays for a set number of water units which gives you a daily allocation of water you can take from the scheme. This is controlled by a restrictor device at your tank. You need to have two days storage of water on your property in case the scheme needs to be shut down for repairs. We report emergency and planned outages on Antenno and Facebook.

If your water supply runs out, check if there is any water running into your tank and if the tank is empty. Please report faults and problems to Council. 

Rural stock water supply schemes:

• Duncraigen
• Five Rivers
• Homestead
• Kakapo
• Matuku
• Mount York
• Princhester
• Ramparts and
• Takitimu.

To find out more about water quality and whether it is safe to swim in the region's rivers visit Environment Southland