This tool encodes the Water Services (Drinking Water Quality Assurance) Rules 2026, in force from 1 July 2027. The 2026 Rules revoke and replace the DWQAR 2022. Compliance is assessed over the compliance year — 1 July to 30 June — not the calendar year, and every schedule and calendar below runs on that basis. For sampling before 1 July 2027 you must still work to the 2022 Rules.
To build your schedule:
Three scenarios. The schedule and calendar run on the mandatory minimum by default — exactly what the Rules require. Two further scenarios add headroom: compliance margin lifts distribution FAC one step so one low reading can't fail the percentage rule, and lowest risk lifts FAC to the maximum and raises E. coli monitoring above the minimum to detect contamination sooner. FAC is the only determinand with a percentage-of-samples compliance rule; the extra E. coli sampling lowers supply risk rather than buying compliance tolerance. The Scenarios tab compares all three.
Tap the i button (top right) for the full basis of the model, its limitations and assumptions, and the public references.
Not mandatory under DWQAR 2026, but commonly run to support customer-experience / complaint response. This is the full 34-determinand set from the Aesthetic Values for Drinking Water Notice 2022 (Taumata Arowai). It is costed as a single suite per sample point — set that rate under Settings → pricing (Aesthetic GV suite).
Used for lab-fee estimates in Scenarios and Reports. Leave blank to skip costing — the schedule still generates. Sampler labour, travel and courier are not included. Use Simple for grouped rates, or Detailed to price each test individually (e.g. arsenic and boron costing more than nitrate).
This is the annual sampling load derived from your supply configuration, one line per determinand and rule. Continuous-monitoring duties (FAC, pH, turbidity, fluoride, UVT) appear as zero grab samples — they are analyser / SCADA obligations, not lab trips. Cyanobacteria visual inspections are operator field tasks costed at zero lab fee.
Scenario selector (top right). The mandatory minimum is the free baseline — exactly what the Rules require. Compliance margin adds distribution FAC grabs so one low result cannot fail the percentage rule (D2.7 80% / D3.RD.3 85%). Lowest risk lifts FAC to the maximum frequency and also raises E. coli monitoring above the mandated minimum to shorten the contamination-detection window (lower supply risk, not a compliance allowance). FAC is the only determinand with a percentage-of-samples compliance rule; metals and other Monitoring-rule determinands stay at the minimum. Both are premium; the Scenarios tab compares all three. The lab cost shown is analysis fees only and excludes sampler labour, travel and courier.
Site guidance. Tick the Site guidance box to show, under each determinand, the kind of location the Rules expect that sample to be taken from — for example peripheral vs central points, reservoir exits, or first-draw consumer taps. The planner counts samples, not sites, so this is advisory: it does not change the schedule or cost, it just reminds you where each sample should sit in your written sampling plan.
From annual frequency to actual dates. DWQAR 2026 specifies "12 samples per month" or "twice monthly" but stops short of saying which weekday, or how to handle stat holidays. This view runs the compliance year (1 July – 30 June), bunches same-day samples into sampler trips, treats the D3.RD.4 maximum-days-between-samples limit and the D3.MM.2 weekend minimums as hard constraints, prefers weekdays and avoids stat holidays where it can, and rolls long-cycle items (3-yr, 10-yr) into the year they fall due.
Weekends and holidays are a solver, not a switch. Avoid-weekends and avoid-holidays are preferences: the scheduler keeps every sample on a weekday and off stat holidays wherever it can, but yields to a weekend or holiday-adjacent day only when honouring the preference would breach a rule's maximum-days-apart limit — it never stretches the gap past the legal maximum to dodge a weekend. So a weekend sample appears only where the tight FAC tiers (20–24/month, 2-day gap) force it, the D3.MM micro rule mandates Saturday/Sunday cover above 25,000 people, or the Christmas period leaves no working day inside the gap. The insight panel tells you how many weekend samples remain and why, and flags any that had to land on a stat holiday so you can arrange cover. The default sampling weekday now genuinely shifts low-frequency (monthly / quarterly) placements toward your chosen day; tightly-spaced rows need a spread of weekdays, so it has little effect there by design.
Multi-year items appear only when marked due. A 3-yearly metals panel, the 10-yearly radiological set, or the periodic full DWSNZ suite shows on the calendar only when you tick it as due this compliance year on the relevant source (Setup tab). Each is independent. Change the Compliance year (here or on Setup — they are the same year) and re-tick to plan a different year.
Cost is lab fees only. The "Annual lab cost" stat reflects analysis charges (unit price × samples per year) and matches the Schedule page. It excludes the field sampler's time, vehicle, courier and bottle handling. For full operating cost, add your sampler rate × the trip count (see the "Sampler trips" stat) plus a per-trip travel allowance.
Scenario and site guidance. The Scenario selector mirrors the Schedule page — mandatory minimum is free; compliance margin and lowest risk are premium. Tick Show sampling-site guidance to label each sampling day with the kind of location it should be (e.g. the DBP rounds alternate peripheral / central per D3.RD.10); it is advisory and does not change dates or cost.
The three scenarios trade sampling cost against two distinct benefits — FAC compliance headroom, and faster contamination detection:
Absolute pass/fail limits and continuous-monitoring duties are left at the mandated minimum in every scenario — tightening the threshold itself is not something extra grabs can do.
Mandatory minimum is the free baseline; compliance margin and lowest risk are premium. The comparison below quantifies what the extra lab spend buys — how many bad results each scenario can absorb, and how much sooner contamination would be caught.
Download your schedule and calendar as CSV for procurement and lab briefs, or save your full supply configuration to a file so you can reload it later or share it with a colleague. Choose which scenarios to include in each export below. Everything you enter is also kept in this browser automatically.
Your inputs auto-save in this browser. To keep a permanent copy, move between machines, or share with a colleague, download a configuration file and load it back here.
This planner encodes the monitoring and sampling rules of the Water Services (Drinking Water Quality Assurance) Rules 2026, made 18 June 2026 and in force from 1 July 2027. They revoke and replace the DWQAR 2022.
From your supply configuration — category, sources and their water classes, treatment chemicals, and distribution zones with their populations — it derives the mandatory sampling schedule, converts annual frequencies into actual sample dates across the compliance year (1 July – 30 June), bundles same-day samples into sampler trips, and estimates lab fees. It honours the new D3.RD.4 maximum-days-between-samples constraints and the D3.MM.2 mandatory weekend-sampling minimums, and merges NZ public holidays (including Matariki and full Mondayisation) across the compliance-year boundary.
Each obligation is a rule entry carrying its 2026 reference and frequency: continuous duties (0 grab samples), per-month counts (e.g. D3.RD.4 FAC at 12–24/month by population), per-year counts (quarterly DBPs, annual panels) and weekly (chlorate). Population tiers drive the D3 FAC and microbiological schedules. The calendar places exactly the scheduled number of dates so the calendar cost equals the schedule cost.
Multi-year items are a one-year decision. Because this is a plan for a single compliance year, items on a 3-yearly (source metals) or 10-yearly (radiological) cycle, and the periodic full DWSNZ suite, are not phased automatically. On each source you tick whether each is due this compliance year — independently, so a 3-yearly item can be due while a 10-yearly one is not. When ticked it is scheduled once that year at full cost; when not, it is omitted.
Only FAC distribution monitoring (D2.7, D3.RD.3) is assessed as a percentage of samples, so it is the one determinand where extra grabs change the compliance position. E. coli is a zero-tolerance Monitoring rule under DWQAR 2026: any detection triggers the assessment/response process regardless of sample count, and the old DWSNZ bacterial transgression-allowance (more samples buying tolerance for a positive) does not carry into the 2026 Rules. So extra E. coli sampling buys no compliance tolerance — but more frequent monitoring still detects a contamination event sooner, lowering actual supply risk, which is why the lowest-risk scenario raises E. coli above the minimum.
The tool counts samples, not sites. The Rules require each distribution zone to have multiple representative routine sampling locations, including both peripheral and central points and higher-risk / high-density areas (D3.RD.5, D2.3). DBP sites must be alternated between peripheral and central locations (D3.RD.10), and microbiological sites must represent the system including storage exits and inter-supplier entry points (D3.MM.4). The number of samples per year is unchanged by this — but your sampling plan must rotate them across the required sites. The Site guidance toggle (on the Schedule and Calendar tabs) surfaces this advice per row, and labels the alternating DBP rounds peripheral / central; it is advisory only and never changes the schedule, dates or cost. Set the actual locations in your written sampling plan (D3.RD.2, D3.MM.1).
Planner v2.7 · encodes DWQAR 2026 (in force 1 July 2027).