Water for your health


Water is the most important of all life essential nutrients, making up about 70% of the mass of the human body.

To maintain a healthy level of hydration during a day of modest activity, the average adult needs to drink about eight glasses of water (two litres) per day in addition to any tea, coffee or alcoholic drinks.

Your lungs expel up to four cups of water every day through normal breathing. Another two cups will be lost through perspiration, and that doesn’t count fluid loss from exercise! Further fluids are expelled through the body’s regular digestive processes.

Water regulates the body’s temperature, cushions the nervous system and flushes the body of waste products. It is also recognised that skin, hair, nails and eyes benefit greatly from an adequate water intake.

Lack of water can lead to dehydration, with attendant headaches, lack of mental stamina, fatigue and dizziness. Prolonged dehydration may lead to more serious health complications, including kidney failure.

So, while we should all drink plenty of water, it is also vital that our water supply is clean and healthy.

With the help of a Triflow water filter system, you can ensure that you drink enough clean, fresh water by always keeping a jug of filtered water to hand. Fill your kids’ drink bottles from your Triflow before they leave for school, and your own sports bottle when you exercise.

Sport & Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) also recommends that people who are overweight should drink plenty of water. This not only assists to cleanse the body, but also discourages consumption of sugary sports drinks, soft drinks and juices.

With a Triflow system, filtered water will become your family’s healthy drink of choice.


Water quality in New Zealand

Safe water is vital for the good health of your family, but also for friends and visitors to your home.

If your water comes from a mains supply, your water safety is monitored by your local authority (which may or may not give you comfort, depending on the authority). If your water comes from a water collection tank or other source, it is up to you to keep your water safe.

While many local authority water supplies in New Zealand are of a good standard and are unlikely to actually make your family ill, many still leave much to be desired both in taste and the prevalence of chemical treatment additives such as chlorine.

In February 2009, the Ministry of Health published its 2006/2007 Review of Drinking Water Quality in New Zealand.

While the paper suggests that New Zealand household water quality is generally sound, there were also some unsettling findings.

Among areas for concern were findings that:

• 811,000 New Zealanders (20% of the population) are not serviced by a reticulated water supply which complies with the E.coli drinking water standard.
• 92,000 people are served by supplies containing an unacceptable level of E.coli.
• 25% of New Zealanders are not serviced by a reticulated water supply which complies with the protozoan drinking water standard.
• There were 124 registered water supplies, serving approximately 170,000 people, which complied bacteriologically in 2005, but had ceased to comply by 2007.
• Of the 1,003 supplies designated as private supplies during 2006/07, supplying water to around 141,000 people, only 9% complied bacteriologically with the drinking water standards.
• Only 16% of schools which operated their own water supply complied bacteriologically with the drinking water standards.

Many smaller communities in particular are not supplied with microbiologically compliant drinking water. The Ministry’s report states that although monitoring and corrective action is improving, “this issue remains of concern because failure to remedy the cause of a transgression subjects the population to prolonged exposure to faecally-contaminated drinking-water and imposes an unacceptable risk of waterborne disease on the community.” (See page 4 of the Report)

The study also found that untreated or contaminated water supplies were a contributing factor in most of the 184 waterborne disease outbreaks in New Zealand during 2006/07. The writers comment that “it is unlikely that this situation will change appreciably while so many drinking-water supplies, particularly those serving small communities, do not employ adequate risk management practices including treatment.” (See page 6 of the Report).

These findings make it clear that the only way to guarantee the quality of your family’s drinking and cooking water is to take action yourself.

Click here to view the Ministry of Health Water Quality Report.

Other relevant and helpful information from the Ministry of Health includes:

“Water collection tanks and safe household water” (April 2006) – click here to download a copy.
“Secure groundwater bores and wells for safe household water” (March 2000) – click here to download a copy.