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Our water networkTō tātau kōtuinga wai

Napier’s 482km reticulated water network delivers almost 1 billion litres of water to Napier’s homes and businesses annually. Water is drawn up from an underground aquifer through seven bores into 11 reservoirs that supply the network with the help of nine pump stations.

Napier's network at a glance

NCC's water supply system consists of 482 km of mains, 11 reservoirs and nine booster pump stations. Each month 27 residential zones, seven bores and all our reservoirs are sampled and tested by an IANZ-accredited laboratory to ensure your drinking water is safe.

A total of 10.03 million cubic metres of water was distributed for the year ending 30 June 2018.

Our water is drawn from the Heretaunga Plains artesian aquifer and reticulated to the Napier urban area and to Bay View. While the aquifer is a source of high quality water, NCC adopted Ministry of Health and Hawke’s Bay District Health Board’s recommendations to continue with chlorination of our water supply.

Napier's water journey from aquifer to tap

We draw our town water supply from an aquifer deep underground. This water may be high quality, but before we can drink it, we need to transport the water up through bores, into our reservoirs, and through our pipe network to the taps in our homes and businesses.

This pathway from aquifer to tap is where the risk factors of contamination lie — in the bores, the 11 reservoirs on seven different sites, and the 482 km of pipes that transport water around Napier. At each stage we need multiple barriers in place to deliver safe drinking water.

We have learnt a lot about our aquifer since the Havelock North water crisis of 2016. We now know the water is just two years old at some of our bores - not 40 to 70 years old as we had assumed. Some pathogens can survive in water for up to two years. We know there are seasonal variations in water age and we're continually carrying out testing to further understand such trends. Take a look at the diagram below to learn more about how you get the water to your home.

Proudly Napier Page 3 September 18 815 x 676

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