The Tasmanian Government is making good on its threat to take control of the state's water body, promising to speed up the timeframe of urgently needed infrastructure upgrades.

Premier Will Hodgman used today's State of the State address on the first sitting day of Parliament to outline the Government's intention to assume ownership of TasWater.

"No-one will lose their job as a result of this change of ownership," he said.

"Concessions to low-income Tasmanians and pensioners remain as they are, firmly in place."

Late last year, TasWater announced a 10-year plan to heavily invest in upgrading infrastructure.

Several towns in Tasmania have undrinkable water, and about 20 towns are on Boil Water alerts.

In the weeks before Parliament's return, Treasurer and Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein foreshadowed he did not accept TasWater's approach to fixing the problems.

The Government will take over TasWater from July next year.

It will introduce legislation to prohibit any future privatisation of TasWater.

Mr Hodgman told Parliament the Government would complete the remainder of TasWater's $1.5 billion capital investment program within five years.

Local governments, which currently own TasWater, will have their expected returns from TasWater guaranteed until 2024-2025, and the Premier told Parliament they "won't get a dollar less".

From there, councils will get half of all future returns.

Mr Gutwein will deliver a Ministerial Statement to Parliament on Wednesday to provide further detail about the move.

Councils issue a guarded response

Head of the Councils' Owner Representative Group, Northern Midlands Mayor David Downie said he was a bit shocked by the Premier's announcement.

"At the end of the day, I think we've got to look at what is best for the assets that TasWater has to improve, and we've got to make sure the price is affordable for the people of Tasmania," he said.

"It's very important for councils to have that income stream [of dividends]. Different councils need those funds for different aspects within their budgets."

Head of the Local Government Association, Clarence Mayor Doug Chipman, questioned the Government's aggressive approach.

"Most of the drinking water problems in Tasmania would have been solved by July 2018 anyway. So we're disappointed the Government's continued to beat up TasWater over its performance, particularly for drinking water.

"What the Government's announced today has addressed some of the concerns that local government had, in particular in regard to keeping water rates low for users and the distributions back to councils."

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, a TasWater spokesman said the company had "just heard" the Premier's announcement.

"Until we see the details of the plan and talk to our owner councils we will not be commenting at this stage," the statement read.