"The Hawke's Bay agencies are now doing this and the Governance Committee will oversee its progress."
The committee would also ensure the momentum of the progress made by the Joint Working Group - which was established for the Government inquiry into the contamination - could continue.
Hawke's Bay Regional Council chairman Rex Graham is currently overseas. His deputy, Rick Barker, said the committee showed people were learning from "the disaster of Havelock North", and would be better for it.
"In simple terms I think the regional council, local council, [HBDHB] have all had a piece of the jigsaw puzzle but have all sat in their offices doing their own thing in a relatively un-co-ordinated way.
"What this means is each party will bring their own piece of the jigsaw puzzle together, put it down collectively, so there will be oversight, and then everything can be integrated better."
Although not to blame, the inquiry had noted issues in communication between the Hastings District and Hawke's Bay Regional councils had not helped to prevent last August's outbreak.
The thoughts of their acting leaders were echoed by the region's other mayors.
Napier mayor Bill Dalton said it would be beneficial to have all the skills and knowledge of the different councils brought together.
"I think drinking water is a nationwide issue. It's certainly a region-wide issue and it's certainly something Napier will want to be involved in."
Central Hawke's Bay mayor Alex Walker said it was important the councils were working together, firstly because "our waterways and how we deal with water is connected across the whole region".
"And secondly there is economics of scale ... of us working together to solve this. We're not independently working on issues to do with drinking water, we can actually do that collectively and that's really powerful."
Although Wairoa dealt with its drinking water differently, its mayor, Craig Little, said he felt they could all benefit from the respective knowledge of each authority.
Hawke's Bay District Health Board Acting Chief Executive Tracee Te Huia said this was a positive step.
"Better collaboration and information sharing between authorities was a key learning and area for improvement highlighted by the [inquiry], therefore the establishment of this committee is warmly welcomed by the DHB."
Having the joint committee was seen as particularly beneficial because of the "multiple barrier" approach to drinking water safety, where agencies need to work together to ensure risks are managed.
The committee's focus would be twofold, providing oversight around the management of drinking water, and possibly to consider, or make recommendations to organisations responsible for the management of broader freshwater management issues.
Its geographic jurisdiction would include the area of all territorial authorities involved.