Life runs on water

Iawai is Aotearoa's first joint council-controlled organisation for water services, delivering drinking water, stormwater and wastewater across Hamilton and the Waikato District in partnership with Waikato-Tainui.

A new organisation with no inherited equity, a sceptical public and three partners to answer to. The name was gifted by mana whenua, from the whakataukī “Me te iawai e rere ana” — like flowing water. Rather than lead with infrastructure, the platform leads with life: the cuppa, the swim, the hose in the backyard. The identity turns on a theme of three — three waters, three partners, three phases of the cycle.