The Government is investing $30m through the Drinking Water in Schools Programme to ensure more rural and remote schools can upgrade their drinking water, Minister of Education Erica Stanford says
“Around 20 per cent of schools and kura manage and supply their own drinking water, these schools are mostly small and rural. This investment will target those schools facing the highest risk of having their water supply disrupted.
“ For too long self-supplying schools have been managing with ageing infrastructure and unreliable systems. The Government’s investment will accelerate fixing this infrastructure and will modernise how drinking water is provided, so that children can have access to safe, reliable drinking water.”
Nearly 230 schools are actively engaged in the programme, 64 of these have immediate remediation work initiated. The rest of these schools have drinking water assessments underway. Full drinking water supply upgrades have already been completed at 20 schools, which includes a mixture of new connections to council infrastructure, modernising bores and source water and new filtration systems.
“This investment provides a direct solution to a critical health and operational challenge in some of our most isolated schools.
“Any disruption to a school’s drinking water supply is not only onerous on the school but may also present a potential health and safety risk to its students.
“Every student, teacher and person at our schools deserves access to safe reliable drinking water.
“Alongside the capital investment, the Ministry of Education is providing school staff and principals with dedicated resources, technical guidance and a free training programme available to all schools.