DWQAR Assurance Rule Applicability Engine

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About this modelPurpose, basis and limitations

Purpose

Derives the set of assurance rules and non-reporting rules that apply to a drinking water supply under the Water Services (Drinking Water Quality Assurance) Rules 2026, from the supply's category, subcategory, elections, source water classes, treatment claims and distribution configuration. It gives guidance only.

What it covers

Assurance rules — systems, artefacts and evidence, self-declared annually as yes/no under G.RR.4 (level 2) or G.RR.7 (level 3).
Non-reporting rules — real obligations that are never reported. Shown in a separate section.
Monitoring rules — deliberately excluded. Those are numbers and limits reported as data; use the DWQAR Sampling Planner.

Rule table

87 assurance rules and 49 non-reporting rules, extracted from Schedule 1 of the 2026 rules. Requirements are paraphrased; rule numbers are cited so the source can be read.

Barrier adequacy

The protozoa log credit required by T3.PC.2 is set by source class. Claimed credits are combined under T3.PC.4, which permits cumulative credit only across one filtration process and one disinfection process. The bacteria and virus barrier is tested against T3.BC.2.

Rules module assignment

Preliminary rule 6. An election to a higher module is all-or-nothing (r6(2)); electing T3 forces S3 (r6(3)).

Glossary

SQEP: Suitably qualified and experienced person — someone with the qualifications and experience the task actually requires. Named in the rules; not defined by them.
FAC: Free available chlorine.
FACE: Free available chlorine equivalent — the FAC concentration that would have the same disinfecting power at pH 8.
MAV: Maximum acceptable value, set in the Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand.
C.t: The product of disinfectant concentration and contact time.
T10: Effective contact time — the time taken for 10% of the volume of a unit to pass through it.
NTU: Nephelometric turbidity unit.
UVT: Ultraviolet transmittance.
UVI: Ultraviolet intensity.
RED: Reduction equivalent dose — the UV dose established by bioassay validation.
IANZ: International Accreditation New Zealand.
DAF: Dissolved air flotation.
CIP: Clean in place.
DWQAR: Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules.
DWSNZ: Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand.

Limitations

Navigation and planning aid, giving guidance only. Not a substitute for the rules or for a legal opinion. Read the rule before you rely on it.
Rule set: DWQAR 2026, in force 1 July 2027. The 2022 rules use a different numbering scheme and different source water classes; the transition delta is a separate increment.
Source water class is not computed. Rule S3.CR.1 requires a suitably qualified and experienced person. The tool states the evidence a class claim needs; it does not make the claim for you.

References

Water Services (Drinking Water Quality Assurance) Rules 2026
Water Services (Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand) Regulations 2022
USEPA Ultraviolet Disinfection Guidance Manual; USEPA LT2ESWTR Toolbox Guidance Manual
NSF/ANSI 61, 419, 53, 55; AS/NZS 4348 and 3497

SettingsRegister display, calendar, gap ranking and lead times

Edits save automatically in this browser. Reset to defaults (below) puts these settings back; your supply and rule statuses are kept.

Register

Show the non-reporting section on the register Show rules marked not applicable (dimmed) on the register Always show the derivation trace

Renewal calendar

Forward view How many years ahead the Renewal Calendar shows. Five is typical; ten catches the five-yearly assessments twice.

Reference date Today by default. Drives expiry and lead-time calculations; set a later date to see the plan as it will stand then.

Gaps

Rank by The order of the Gaps & Actions list. Lead time is the default.

Lead times

The rules set deadlines. They say nothing about how long the work takes. Every obligation is assigned to one of these classes, and the weeks below are Watercalcs planning estimates — not law. They drive the ranking and the start-by date on the Gaps tab. Change them to match how your organisation actually procures: enter whole weeks, 0 to 260.

Data

Save, load and export are on the Report & Save tab.