STACY SQUIRES/Stuff
Christchurch has 49 pump stations, making the challenge of fluoridation more difficult than many other cities.
Fluoridating Christchurch tap water is a “complex challenge” which may be left to a new water authority to implement.
Decision-making over fluoridation rests with the Director-General of health, who wants councils to add it to their water supplies before July 2024.
Earlier this year, 14 councils were directed to add fluoride, though Christchurch was not among them.
At a conference on Tuesday, Christchurch City Council’s water and wastewater team leader Michele McDonald said a fluoridation update for the city was due in December.
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However, she said implementation could be left to the new water services entity.
In July 2024, responsibility for all water infrastructure in most of the South Island will fall to a new entity set up under the Government’s Three Waters legislation.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said if the Director-General issued further fluoridation orders, “it is likely that some will have compliance dates set for after July 2024”.
Christchurch was always expected to have trouble introducing flouride to its water by July 2024.
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Earlier this year, it was estimated it could take three to four years. At the same time, city councillors were told in private by council staff that a six-to-eight-year timeline was more likely.
McDonald was joined at Tuesday’s conference session on fluoridation by Jack Deeley, an engineer from Jacobs, which helped the council estimate the fluoridation costs earlier this year.
That work found it would cost $63 million to implement and $2.5m annually to operate and maintain.
The presentation did not cover the costs and benefits of fluoridation, but why it would be a challenge for the city.
”Christchurch City Council is faced with a complex challenge,” McDonald said.
She said the council’s command and control system was not designed to monitor, manage and control chemical dosing facilities needed for fluoride.
The system has 49 pump stations which vary in size and configuration, she said.
Deeley said some pump stations had very tight space for construction and the proximity to neighbours would add to the complexity.
New structures would have to be built in some cases to manage the fluoride chemicals, he said.
In one example, Deeley said an Estuary Rd pump station had “little space for site expansion, very tight access ways, and you’d also have to reverse out onto a busy road for chemical deliveries.
“They weren’t designed to be water treatment plants, they’re pump stations,” he said.
Under fluoridation, Christchurch would have to add fluoride at all 49 of its pump stations.
By comparison, Auckland relies on six water treatment plants for fluoridation.
A report commissioned for the Ministry of Health in 2016 found fluoridation in Canterbury could save between $106m and $318m in dental costs over 20 years.
A 2020 study by public dental health researchers said the poor oral health of Canterbury children was an “ongoing paediatric health crisis” and that children living in non-fluoridated areas were 20 per cent more likely to have tooth decay.