The Tasmanian Government is moving to take control of the state's water body.

Premier Will Hodgman used his State of the State address on the first sitting day of Parliament continue the charge.

“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.”

Towns across Tasmania have undrinkable water, with about 20 on Boil Water alerts.

TasWater – a local government-owned body - last year announced a 10-year plan to upgrade infrastructure, but earlier this year Treasurer and Local Government Minister Peter Gutwein hinted he was not happy with TasWater's approach to fixing the problems.

So now, the Government is introducing legislation to take over TasWater from July next year, and to prohibit any future privatisation of the agency.

Mr Hodgman said the Government would take over TasWater's $1.5 billion capital investment program, and complete it within five years.

The local governments that currently own TasWater will have their expected returns guaranteed until 2024-2025, and not “a dollar less”, the premier said.

Councils will then get half of all future returns.

Local Government Association of Tasmania chief Doug Chipman, questioned the 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,” he said.

“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.”