Council's role

The role of the Marlborough District Council is to manage, allocate, monitor and educate the community on this most precious of natural resources.

Everyone has a right to take small quantities of water for drinking, and to provide for their stock. Larger volumes require resource consent which is issued by the Marlborough District Council.

The reason for this is that taking larger volumes of water can affect other users, and in most areas there is only a finite amount of water in a river or aquifer. The Marlborough District Council manages local underground water for the benefit of all.  

As well as being a regulator, Council also monitors the effects of abstraction via a network of wells and investigates the hydrology of aquifer systems.