Queenstown Lakes District Council chief engineer Ulrich Glasner said the town's new drinking water supply project was on track to be completed in late September.
It has involved drilling three bores at Scott's Beach on Lake Hawea.
At present the town's drinking water comes from the lake and can be contaminated by the E. coli bacteria, probably due to cattle defecating in a stream which flows into the lake near the water supply intake.
Water from the bores will be pumped to a new ultraviolet treatment plant and on to the existing reservoir.
The bores - which have a diameter of 150mm to 300mm - are 46m to 51m deep.
Mr Glasner said the new scheme also enabled water to be pumped directly from the treatment plant to the reticulated network, bypassing the reservoir, to meet peak summer demand.
- Jessica Maddock
