Drinking water quality and incidents

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Drinking water quality information

Public water supplies in NSW are monitored in line with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Water quality information is available from:

• Sydney Water Corporation
  
• Hunter Water Corporation
• Your local water utility (council) in regional NSW

Water supplies in regional NSW are monitored for microbiological and chemical quality through the NSW Health Drinking Water Monitoring Program.

NSW Health encourages all public water suppliers to regularly report water quality information to their consumers. Water quality information is also published annually in the NSW Departm​ent of Planning, Industry and Environment Water’s performance monitoring and benchmarking reports.

Water quality incidents

Occasionally incidents affect drinking water quality. These may include changing source water conditions such as flooding, operational problems, detection of Escherichia coli bacteria and/or blooms of ​cyanobacteria (blue green algae).

The NSW Health response protocols provide guidance on managing physical, chemical and microbiological quality of drinking water and/or treatment failure. Water suppliers in consultation with their local Public Health Unit may issue a boil water alert or other warnings to protect the health of consumers.

Water suppliers are responsible for ensuring that consumers are aware of any warnings regarding the safety of drinking water. This can be achie​​ved using a variety of media such as newspapers, radio and social media. Letter drops, warning signs and direct contact with vulnerable populations may also be required.

Incidents

For current information on incidents, please check with your water supplier. NSW Health updates this list based on information provided by water suppliers. Sometimes there may be a delay in reporting.

Refer to archived drinking water quality and incidents for previous incidents.