- Fluoride is being reintroduced to Hastings water from next week.
- It has been eight years since the city water supply had fluoride added. It was stopped after the Havelock North water crisis.
- Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said it was always the intention to add fluoride to the water again.
Fluoride is returning to Hastings water after an eight-year absence.
The last time Hastings District Council put fluoride in its water supply was in 2016, when the deadly Havelock North drinking water crisis struck.
Since the crisis, which made more than 6000 people ill with campylobacter, the dosing system that had been used for fluoride was used for chlorine instead.
The council announced on Tuesday that it would start introducing fluoride again from next week, following an extensive programme of upgrades.
Hastings water was fluoridated from 1953 until the Havelock North water crisis.
Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said it had always been the council’s intention to re-introduce fluoride.
“This has since been reinforced by a clear directive from the Ministry of Health to resume fluoridation,” Hazlehurst said.
Hastings was one of 14 councils directed by the then Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield to fluoridate their water in July 2022.
This followed the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that shifted decision-making on fluoridation from councils to the Director General of Health.
In November last year, the High Court found there was a missed step in the process leading to the issuing of the requirements that needed to be addressed, but it did not rescind the direction and the affected councils are still required to proceed with fluoridation.
Fluoride will be reintroduced to the main urban water supply which provides water to Hastings, Havelock North, Flaxmere, Bridge Pa and Pakipaki.
But the council was not required to add fluoride to the smaller community drinking water supplies at this stage.
The community drinking water station in Hastings Civic Square provides a supply of non-chlorinated water with no added fluoride.
Original article online at: https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350232475/fluoride-being-reintroduced-hastings-water-after-8-year-absence