Fluoride-free water flows in city

Caoimhe Murphy-Twhigg fills up from a new, non-fluoridated drinking fountain and filling station on the corner of Warren and Eastbourne St, Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor

Hastings residents can now fill up on non-fluoridated drinking water, thanks to a new inner-city drinking fountain and bottle-filling station.

The facility was installed this week at the Eastbourne St bore at the intersection of Warren and Eastbourne Streets.

Hastings District Council earlier this year earmarked funds for the station - and another station planned for Lyndhurst Rd - after a group of Hastings residents opposed to fluoridation took to tapping directly into the city's bore supplies to stockpile untreated water.

The council at the time called the practice unauthorised and warned those who were doing it may have unwittingly taken fluoridated water.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said a referendum in October last year found 63 per cent of voters wanted to keep fluoride in the Hastings District's urban water supply, but a group of residents remained set on a non-fluoridated water supply in Hastings.

He said this station's pipe work would draw directly from a natural aquifer.

"The supply will comply with the Drinking Water Standards for NZ as the groundwater source is deemed secure and requires no further treatment.

"The fountains are designed so that containers can be filled with the non-fluoridated water.

"A connector at the end of the lower fill point will allow easy and straightforward filling of larger containers," Mr Yule said.

Work would commence in March next year to set up a non-fluoridated water supply from the bore field at Frimley Park on Lyndhurst Rd.

A budget of $30,000 for the two sites on Eastbourne St and Lyndhurst Rd was included in the 2014/15 Annual Plan.

Advocates for a non-fluoridated water supply had also requested a facility in Havelock North, but council staff had found this wasn't possible at the Brookvale Rd bore due to "the rural location and unsafe vehicle parking".

Angela Hair, of Fluoride Free Hastings, said the group was "very happy to see that what was promised has been fulfilled".

"I'm really pleased people will now have a choice between fluoridated and non-fluoridated water."

However, the group would continue to push to have Hawke's Bay water widely available in its natural state, Ms Hair said.