Arrowtown’s new, highly anticipated ultra violet (UV) water treatment system is up and running.

Chief Engineer Ulrich Glasner said the new system was a simple, safe and effective way to treat a public water system and had the added bonus of using no chemicals. Historically Arrowtown residents had chosen not to chemically treat their water supply.

The new treatment system would greatly reduce the number of boil water notices issued to Arrowtown.

“UV water purification kills up to 99.9% of bacteria, including e-coli.  The new system is working well and while this won’t be a complete cure to e-coli presence in the water system, we can be confident that it will significantly reduce the occurrences,” Mr Glasner said.