Wastewater network

Our role is to collect your wastewater, screen and treat it to a high standard, and then safely return it to the natural environment.

Dealing with wastewater for our district is a huge job. Every day we collect over 6.5 million litres of wastewater which travels through a network of 528km of pipes, over 100 pump stations and 11 treatment plants.

What's in wastewater?

Wastewater is actually 99 percent water, with the remaining 1 percent made up of things added to the water as it's being used. That 1 percent includes washing detergents and other cleaning products and chemicals, dirt, sand and grit and of course, human waste.

Treatment plants

Treatment plants are the heart of the wastewater operation. It's where wastewater is cleaned and treated to remove all the nasty contaminants which can be harmful to our health and waterways, before being reused or safely released into the environment.

Our 11 treatment plants handle wastewater for the district's largest town, Taupō (including Wairakei), plus Acaia Bay and Kinloch, our most northern communities in Mangakino, Whakamaru and Atiamuri and several southern lakeside communities, including Tūrangi and Omori.

Learn about the wastewater journey, from toilet to treatment.

Map showing location of wastewater treatment plants in the Taupo District.

Our responsibilities and yours

Council own and maintain the wastewater network – including pipes, pump stations and treatment plants – up to your property boundary. In some places, our network extends into private property, and from time to time we may need access to these parts of the network so we can inspect and maintain them.

From your property boundary into your home, the pipes and connections are your responsibility to maintain. There's a few things you can do to help prevent blockages and overflows.

Did you know? Wastewater and stormwater are two different networks. Wastewater comes from toilets, sinks, showers, baths, washing machines and businesses. Stormwater is rainwater that runs off roofs, driveways, roads and paved areas. The two systems should be kept separate.

How you can help

You can help protect your own property, the wider wastewater network and our waterways by taking some simple actions:

making sure gully traps are working properly
keeping stormwater out of wastewater pipes
and not flushing items like wet wipes and sanitary products.

Lear more about how you can help.

New connections

New connections to the wastewater network need Council approval before any work begins. This helps ensure new connections are safe, correctly built and do not damage the public network.

Find out more about applying for a connection.