NZ West Coast councils baulk at fluoride cost

 

Lois Williams

Lois Williams joins Newsroom after more than three 

decades as a senior Radio New Zealand journalist

and more recently as a 

Local Democracy reporter on the West Coast.

COMMENTS BY Peter Davis, Kate Somervail

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

West Coast councils baulk at fluoride cost

Big bucks and reluctant ratepayers mean mayors are lukewarm about the Health Ministry’s water-supply directive

West Coast councils say ratepayers will be facing yet another cost they can’t afford if they’re forced to fluoridate their public water supplies.

The power to direct fluoridation now rests with the Director General of Health after a 2021 law change and 14 councils have been ordered to add the chemical to their drinking water.

On the West Coast, where no public water supplies are fluoridated, the Ministry of Health has asked the three district councils to work out what it would cost to introduce it.

Buller Mayor Jamie Cleine says the projected costs of adding fluoride to tap water have soared by 23 percent in the past 12 months because of inflation.

In a letter to the ministry, his council warns it has no budget for fluoridation because there’s been no community consultation on the subject.

“The costs are all very high - we’d be looking at a significant rate rise if the ratepayers had to fund it,” Cleine says. 

The council’s revised capital costs for fluoridation over two years for Westport (population 4974) and Reefton (population 951) would be $250,000 apiece, with further costs of $466,000 and $368,000 respectively. 

Ongoing maintenance and operational costs would be $21,678 for Westport and $12,485 for Reefton, the council estimates.

“We wanted to highlight some key issues like the increased overall cost of implementation, monitoring and management and the fact that fluoridation is not included in our long-term plan, which raises the question how it will be funded,” the council has told the ministry.

“Also, we wanted to emphasise that the community has not been consulted on this issue and there are differing views within our communities regarding fluoridation, both for and against.”..................