Water by town
| Runs it now | What's planned | |
|---|---|---|
| Palmerston North | Palmerston North City Council | Central Districts Water is due to take over from July 2027 |
| Levin | Horowhenua District Council | Central Districts Water is expected to start in July 2027 |
| Feilding | Manawatū District Council, in-house | No new company |
| Whanganui | Whanganui District Council | A company shared with Ruapehu is planned by July 2027 |
Palmerston North, Levin and Feilding
Palmerston North City Council maintains a 405 km public wastewater network, but it doesn't unblock pipes on private property. The owner pays a plumber for that. The council's customer service centre is on 06 356 8199.
In Levin, Horowhenua District Council takes calls about water leaks, toby locations, connections and meters on (06) 366 0999.
Manawatū District Council's pipe rules couldn't be read when we checked, so ask it where its pipe ends before work near a Feilding boundary.
Whanganui: the lateral, the trees and the water
Whanganui District Council is responsible for blockages from your boundary to the sewer main, the stretch called the sewer lateral. It doesn't pay for faults on private property.
If a toilet or sewer pipe blocks, you ring a plumber, who finds where the blockage is. If it's in the council network, the council is invoiced.
Roots from a council tree have got into your private drain? The council won't prune or remove the tree. And nobody may lift a manhole lid.
The town's aquifer water is hard, about 175 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which the council says is within guidelines. Hard water can scale elements and plumbing fittings. The council will tell you where your toby is if you ask.
Licences belong to people, not firms
Under the Act, authorisation sits with individuals. A plumbing company isn't in breach if the people actually doing the work are authorised. What counts is each person's own licence.
So the name to check on the PGDB register is the person at your door, plus their supervisor if they have one. Our licence guide shows how.
Gas sign-off and cylinder consent
A gas certificate of compliance can only come from someone who did or supervised the work and whom the Board authorises to certify that kind of gasfitting.
Repairing an existing water heater with comparable products needs no building consent. A replacement is exempt only if the new heater connects to, or contains, a controlled heat source. An authorised person does the work in both cases.
What we would do in Manawatū-Whanganui
In Whanganui, let the plumber locate a blockage before you worry about cost: if it sits in the council network, the council gets the invoice. In Palmerston North, don't wait for the council to clear a private pipe, because it won't. And if cylinder elements keep failing in Whanganui, ask the plumber whether scale from the hard water is part of the story.
Send the job through, and a Manawatū-Whanganui tradie who specialises in it can take it. Only that tradie gets your contact details.