31 Mar 2025: supply of unfluoridated water

Media: Local Democracy Reporter

Topic: Supply of unfluoridated water

Enquiry

I was wondering if the council were able to say how much water was taken from the Ngongotahā tap and Puarenga Park tap on Friday and over the weekend?

What was demand like? How much of this use is above the ordinary water take?

Will any further source be introduced, or either temporary be changed, why and when? How? At what cost?

What did it cost to get the temporary taps available?

How was the council able to get the Puarenga tap sorted out instead of in a month? As it is within the fluoridated area how is this water unfluoridated? (I.e. fed by tank etc)

At the MoH-attended workshop Dr Clarke said infrastructure funding could be used to make available an unfluoridated source. From that workshop chief executive Andrew Moraes said the option was being investigated. But this came after the $3m was given to Rotorua for the infrastructure.

Was this option ever provided to councillors to consider? Why/why not? If so what was the outcome?

Response

From Infrastructure and Assets Group Manager Stavros Michael:

I was wondering if the council were able to say how much water was taken from the Ngongotahā tap and Puarenga Park tap on Friday and over the weekend? What was demand like? How much of this use is above the ordinary water take?

A meter has been installed on the Ngongotaha tap, showing 653 litres of water used since installation (an average household uses about 650 litres per day). At this stage there is no meter installed on the Puarenga Park tap so we do not have consumption information.

Will any further source be introduced, or either temporary be changed, why and when? How? At what cost?

As previously indicated, the take from the current two sources of unfluoridated water (at the existing water filling station at Ngongotahā and the tank at Puarenga Park) will be monitored and additional sites may be considered depending on demand.

What did it cost to get the temporary taps available?

The cost for installation of taps, meters and pumps at these two sites is expected to be about $15,000.

How was the council able to get the Puarenga tap sorted out instead of in a month?

We decided to just put the taps in initially and make the tank available straight away, then the pump (needed to improve pressure) later.

As it is within the fluoridated area how is this water unfluoridated? (ie fed by tank etc)

See our news item on 26 March: because Puarenga Park is in the central water supply area, tankers will transport water from one of the unfluoridated supplies to periodically fill the tank.

At the MoH-attended workshop Dr Clarke said infrastructure funding could be used to make available an unfluoridated source. From that workshop chief executive Andrew Moraes said the option was being investigated. But this came after the $3m was given to Rotorua for the infrastructure. Was this option ever provided to councillors to consider? Why/why not? If so what was the outcome?

We are wondering if you were thinking that the CE was referring to perhaps setting up an unfluoridated supply that people could then connect to from their homes? That’s not the case. What he was referring to is what we are doing ie providing access to unfluoridated water at Ngongotahā and Puarenga Park.