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Learn about our drinking water quality monitoring program

Greater Sydney's water is from natural sources and is filtered to the high standards set by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. This helps assure your water is safe to drink straight from the tap. We analyse samples in laboratories for about 70 different characteristics. These include taste and odour, colour, microorganisms and chemical content.

Learn more about how we provide Sydney with safe drinking water or look at our daily drinking water quality report to check the water quality in your area.

Drinking water

Our water quality monitoring program comprises 70 different analytical tests to confirm your drinking water is high quality and safe. They include tests for taste and odour, colour, microorganisms and chemical content. Sydney Water Monitoring Services collects and tests samples taken from source to tap, including lakes and rivers, our filtration plants, and at homes and businesses.

Our daily drinking water quality report provides daily updates on how our water treatment processes and systems are performing.

Our Quarterly Drinking Water Quality Report shows typical values for all the water quality characteristics tested for each quarter. These values are a range of all results with the minimum, maximum and averages, and the report includes the number of samples collected, detection limits and the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines values.

Appliances

When you install a new appliance like a dishwasher, steam oven or coffee machine, you may need information about your water to help your appliances work efficiently. This could include your water's level of hardness, acidity/alkalinity (pH), and even dissolved salts that cause scale build-up.

How we measure water hardness

Water hardness depends on how many milligrams per litre (mg/L) of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) it contains.

  • If the concentration is less than 60 mgCaCO3/L, it's considered to be soft.
  • If the concentration is more than 60 mgCaCO3/L, it's considered to be hard.

Greater Sydney's drinking water has a CaCO3 level of about 57 mg/L.

Your appliance's handbook may express water hardness using different units depending on where the appliance was manufactured. The water analysis below provides the most common units of measure.

How to convert milligrams to millimoles
European brand dishwashers express water hardness using millimoles per litre (mmol/L or mmolCaCO3/L) rather than mg/L. Just divide mg/L by 100. Thus, 57 mg/L = 0.57 mmol/L.

Home brewing

The quality of your tap water can play a part in the final result of your home-brewed drinks. It may make a difference for beer, cider and even spirits. See if the results of recent water quality testing in your area will affect your home brewing.

Aquariums

We add small amounts of different chemicals to Sydney's drinking water to help make it safe to drink, including chlorine and ammonia. While they're present at low and safe concentrations, they may affect fish or other creatures in your fish tank, aquarium or pond. Download our fact sheet for more information about how to protect your fish.

Our daily drinking water quality report confirms how chlorine levels at your tap compare to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines limit of 5 milligrams per litre. You can reduce the level of chlorine (and other chemicals) in different ways. To dechlorinate your water, it's usually enough to leave it in an open container for 48 hours. Once you've done this, the water should be suitable to add to your aquarium. You can also use an aquarium water conditioner to remove chlorine and chloramine, and nitrifying bacteria can reduce nitrate and nitrite.

You may have fish that need water that's high in pH and minerals, or fish that need water that's low in pH and minerals. Shrimp, frogs, turtles and axolotls have their own specific requirements. If you're in any doubt, please check with your aquarium supplier.

General information

If you're a student looking for information for research or an assignment – or a curious customer – our education pages are a rich source of information.

Australian Drinking Water Guidelines

The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines are among the strictest in the world. They provide guidance on how to manage the water supply to ensure safe drinking water.

These guidelines help us assess the quality of your drinking water by specifying health-based criteria and setting standards for how your water should look, smell and taste. They also include a 'multiple barrier approach' for water from catchment to tap. This is how we assure your water is safe to drink. We report on the success of these barriers in our daily drinking water quality report.

Water management

The high quality, safe drinking water we supply is managed under our drinking water management system. This system is how we ensure that our drinking water not only meets the standards set out in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines but satisfies our 2 key regulators: NSW Health and IPART (the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal).

Water quality report

Greater Sydney's water is from natural sources. It’s filtered to the high standards set by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines to ensure that it's safe to drink straight from the tap. You can check our daily drinking water quality report for daily updates on how our water treatment processes and systems are performing.

Quarterly Drinking Water Quality Report

This quarterly report includes details about how we've met the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. It also includes test results for about 70 different characteristics of your water. These include taste and odour, colour, microorganisms and chemical content.

Enter address to see water analysis for your area

Our systems are interconnected. At times, your drinking water may come from different water delivery systems. For example, Blue Mountains residents may receive water from either Cascade or Orchard Hills Water Filtration Plant. This depends on operational needs and storage capacity.

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