Water Supply Strategy for Tauranga

The Draft Water Supply Strategy for Tauranga sets out the major issues affecting the city’s water supply management over the next 30 years and beyond, and identifies the actions needed to address these issues.

Note: this is an General Manager-approved draft plan which enables the council to continue to plan and deliver quality water supply infrastructure and services to our communities, while remaining responsive to changes that may arise from the Government’s Local Water Done Well initiative. 

Executive Summary – Draft Water Supply Strategy 2024-2054  (1.5mb pdf) Draft Water Supply Strategy 2024-2054 (3.3mb pdf)

The 30-year Water Supply Strategy aims to achieve a sustainable, resilient, affordable, and culturally appropriate water supply for Tauranga. 

Water supply infrastructure enables: water collection (‘raw’ water); water treatment (turning ‘raw’ water into ‘potable’ water, which includes all water that comes out of taps); treated water distribution; and treated water storage.

The key water supply issue for Tauranga going forward is security of supply.  The city’s water supply is currently provided through consents to take water from each of the Waiorohi, Tautau and Waiāri streams. The Waiorohi and Tautau consents expire in October 2026.

Key tasks

The key tasks that must be addressed within the strategy timeframe are:

• Continuing to develop the Tangata Whenua Partnership Programme, Community and Stakeholder Engagement Programme, and Our Water Future programme – all of which go across all three waters’ strategies and projects.
• Obtaining two new consents to enable the Council to continue to take water from the Waiorohi and Tautau streams.  The process for renewing these consents has already started, and will require a significant amount of technical work to incorporate climate, environmental, and legislative changes as well as projected population growth for the city.
• Investigating options for sustainable new water sources for Tauranga and the wider western Bay of Plenty for the long term, and determining when they will be needed.
• Transitioning to a new way of managing water resources, in partnership with Tangata Whenua, and to transform Tauranga into a water-sensitive city as envisaged by Council’s Tauranga Taurikura – Environment Strategy.  This will include:
  • More and better coordinated initiatives to reduce water demand, and to reduce water losses over time
  • Continuing with the Our Water Future Programme, which is investigating options for integrating future water supply, wastewater, and stormwater management across the western Bay of Plenty sub-region.

These key tasks will take into account all external challenges and opportunities, including those common to all three of our waters’ strategies, which are: climate change, natural hazards, finding the right balance, urban growth and infrastructure provision, and regulatory compliance / legislative change. (Further information is provided in the where we’re heading (link) section).

You can find out more information about current projects and programmes that help deliver on our Water Supply Strategy on our Wai / Water page.

Resources

Document Library

• Executive Summary – Draft Water Supply Strategy 2024-2054 (1.5mb pdf)
• Draft Water Supply Strategy for Tauranga (3.3mb pdf)

Related information

• Where we’re headed (our 30-year waters plans)
• Draft Wastewater Strategy for Tauranga
• Draft Stormwater Strategy for Tauranga 
• Water Services Reform (Local Water Done Well)
• Wai / Water Services
• 2024-2034 Long-term Plan and 30-year Infrastructure Strategy
• Climate Action & Investment Plan
• Nature and Biodiversity Action & investment Plan 
• Tauranga Taurikura – Environment Strategy
• Connected Centres Programme
• SmartGrowth Strategy 
• Tauranga Moana Iwi Management Plan