Water Services Authority - Taumata Arowai New Website
Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai: A Modern Website Making Information Easier to Find
Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai is the regulator for drinking water in Aotearoa New Zealand, and its website is a critical channel for sharing clear and accessible information with suppliers, councils, and the wider public.
The Authority partnered with Somar Digital to refresh their old site. The new website is built around how people naturally think and access information, with content placed in logical, intuitive locations and supported by a powerful new search function. Together, these changes make it significantly easier for users to find the information they need, when they need it.
Comprehensive Website Redesign
Somar Digital refreshed the existing Silverstripe site to deliver a modern, flexible platform. The redesign, informed by extensive user testing, made the site more accessible and easier for the Authority’s team to manage in the CMS, meaning content can be updated quickly and consistently.
Supply Type Decision Tool
One of the most significant new features is the “What type of supply do I provide?” tool. The tool guides drinking water suppliers through a straightforward set of questions to identify their supply type. Once the questions are answered users will be given links to pages on the site that go into more detail about the drinking water supply type they provide. This removes the need to scroll through irrelevant content or search through the site themselves.
Improved Navigation and Search
Navigation has been restructured to feel more intuitive. Elastic Search has been implemented to power smarter search results, supported by optimised main and sidebar menus, clearer parent, child page structures, and breadcrumbs that helps users keep track of where they are. Together, these improvements help visitors to easily find and engage with the information most relevant to them.
New Learning Hub
The site now includes a Learning Hub, designed to provide plain-English explanations of key water-related terms. Covering topics like water properties, sources, monitoring, and treatment, the hub helps build understanding for suppliers, councils, and members of the public alike.
Engaging Content Elements
To bring information to life, the site makes use of engaging design features. These include embedded videos, side-by-side layouts for text and media, call-out blocks, card rows, and image galleries. Together, these elements highlight key messages, make content more scannable, and ensure users can easily connect related information.
Outcomes
A Modern, Flexible Website
The redesigned website provides water suppliers and network operators with clear guidance on what they need to do, when, and how. By making information easier to find and act on, the site directly supports the Authority’s mission of improving water safety for communities.
Long-Term Web Strategy
The new site sets the Authority up for ongoing success by:
- Supporting compliance with evolving security standards and accessibility best practices
- Strengthening brand identity and building public trust
- Creating a platform optimised for scalability and future technologies
- Supporting a long-term SEO and content strategy that grows visibility and engagement over time
Future-Proofed Solution
The site is hosted on Somar Digital Cloud, powered by AWS. This hosting platform provides incident management, infrastructure optimisations, delivering automation, operational excellence, and speed. A dedicated Somar support desk ensures ongoing maintenance, quick resolution of issues, and proactive updates to keep the CMS and underlying technologies future-ready.
