About
Auckland Council's Safeswim forecasting programme is up and running. Up to the minute information on water quality and swimming conditions at your favourite swimming spots.
Safeswim is a collaborative programme providing real-time advice on the level of risk associated with swimming at specific locations. Safeswim allows beach users to make informed decisions on when and where to swim.
Safeswim is a partnership between the Auckland Council and other regional councils, Surf Life Saving New Zealand, Surf Life Saving Northern Region and the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.
Safeswim combines real-time data on the performance of wastewater and stormwater networks with predictive models - underpinned by regular sampling - to provide forecasts of water quality at swimming sites.
Surf Life Saving is the leading beach and coastal safety, drowning prevention and rescue authority in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Surf Life Saving uses Safeswim to provide advice on beach, coastal and other safety hazards. Approved users manually upload public advisory notices, alerting the public to hazards such as dangerous wave or wind conditions, rip currents, jellyfish swarms or shark sightings.
Safeswim’s water quality predictions consider rain intensity, duration and location, as well as tide, wind speed, wind direction and sunlight. Data from rain gauges are fed into the system to ensure the current prediction reflects actual rainfall.
Water quality predictions are overridden if sensors at pump stations, engineered overflow points on the wastewater network, key points on the stormwater network or operational staff detect overflows that are likely to cause a public health risk at a time when models hadn’t predicted poor water quality (i.e. overflows in dry weather conditions caused by network faults rather than weather conditions).
Safeswim is overseen by an independent panel of national and international public health and water quality experts.
Safeswim follows international and national guidelines designed to provide water quality advice for swimmers close to shore. Activities where people are unlikely to put their head under water – like stand-up paddle boarding, boating and kayaking – or swimming in deep water offshore are less likely to lead to illness.
