Water takes from the region’s aquifers, rivers, and streams support various activities including public water supplies, industrial use, irrigation, and other uses. There are over 500 water take resource consents in the region. Bore drilling into the region’s aquifers requires a resource consent, however minor water takes do not require resource consent.  

We monitor most water take consents to ensure they compliance with any abstraction limits. More than ¾ of our monitored water takes submit daily records to us via telemetered monitoring systems.  

Many water take consents have consent conditions that restrict water use during periods of low river and stream flows. Restrictions can be partial (i.e. the amount of water taken is required to be reduced) or full (i.e. no water is allowed to be taken). It is the consent holder’s responsibility to be fully informed and take appropriate actions of any partial and/or full water restrictions identified in their water take consent conditions based on the current status of river and stream flows identified on our website. All directions and the current status of all river and stream flows in our region are outlined below:  

Water races Fresh water collection and supply
Learning more about Ruamāhanga Valley potential aquifers using SkyTEM Water quantity allocations
Updated May 27, 2025 at 4:08 PM

Get in touch

Phone:
0800496734
Email:
info@gw.govt.nz