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Waikato River
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Hamilton's water supply comes from the Waikato River. The river flows from Lake Taupo and runs through dams, farms, and forests. Hamilton's water treatment, distribution, and management systems ensure that when water reaches consumers, it is free from harmful organisms.
Every second of every day, the Water Treatment Station produces an average of 2200 glasses of high quality water to private homes and industrial premises. But only a very small percentage is used for drinking. The rest is used for bathing, toilet flushing, watering, swimming pools, etc.
Run a mug before drinking
The Ministry of Health is advising Hamilton residents to run tap water first thing before drinking each morning to remove any metals that may have dissolved from the plumbing fittings.
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, the Ministry is recommending this simple precaution for all households, including those on public and private water supplies.
They are working with Standards New Zealand and the plumbing industry to promote quality standards for materials to reduce the dissolved lead problem over time.
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Water Pressure
Water pressure varies around the city and depends mainly on where the property is located. In general the central business district has 92 metres of head, Dinsdale and Newcastle 85 metres and the rest of the city 75 metres.
Minimum water pressure for properties in Hamilton is 10m head at a flow rate of 20 litres/min at the building site. (Note: 10m head=100kPa=14.5psi=1kg/cm²)
Low Pressure
There are a number of things that can cause low pressure. Some things to check for include:
- check whether there are any Council or private works in the area that could be affecting the pressure.
- check that your water main tap (toby) is fully on.
- Other possible reasons for low pressure include having long and/or small diameter private pipelines within private property and internal corrosion of galvanised iron pipes.
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