23 February 2026
Erika Whittome
Via email
Em
ail: [FYI request #33435 email]
Dear Erika
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION UNDER THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL INFORMATION AND MEETINGS
ACT 1987 (LGOIMA) – FLUORIDATION
Your request
On 6 January 2026, we received your request for information. In particular, your request was as follows:
Dear Watercare Services Limited,
I note that Hastings District Council has a fluoride free and chlorine removed water refil station in
the city of Hastings.
Would you please share the location of Auckland water refil stations that are fluoride free and
chlorine removed drinking water?
Yours faithfully,
Erika Whittome
On 22 January 2026, we provided our response as below.
The link below is a map of the Watercare supplied tanker fil ing stations:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=18MUcjwU2suXPHnoHBcB3t55rGCOMHahB&l
=-36.620321899…
Registered tanker operators use these stations to get access to Watercare bulk water supplies for
their customers. Access to these tanker fil ing stations is control ed and not available for individual
customer use.
All fil ing stations would have residual chlorine added from their respective Water Treatment Plant
supplying that area.
The only tanker fil ing stations that do not have fluoride supplied are in our rural Water Treatment
Plant areas. This includes the tanker fil ing stations in Wel sford (105 Centennial Park Road,
Wellsford), Warkworth (6 Brown Road, Warkworth) and Helensvil e (37 Mill Road, Helensville). Al
others have fluoride added.
On 22 January 2026, we received another email seeking clarification of our response set out above. In
particular, your email was as follows:
Dear Pinaz Pithadia,
So are you saying that the information on water refil stations that the public can use that are
fluoride and chlorine fee does not exist?
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
On 18 February 2026, we received another email seeking clarification of our response dated 22 January
2026. In particular, your email was as follows:
Dear Pinaz Pithadia,
Thank you for the response in which you said:
"The link below is a map of the Watercare supplied tanker fil ing stations:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=18MUcjwU2suXP
HnoHBcB3t55rGCOMHahB&l =-
36.62032189999999*2C174.6777079&z=9__;JQ!!JcuPmubLuqHOewrctw!GJtyaHcrJW2lNxXq3JkTPH
i6fJeW2DJAtYnDSJr7AwkyrzevzkOv7EB7f5PAHeg0sebhWaR0KPH4lCt-UXfzA5-
FOWSXkqLOkZKmetxWbIiF$
Registered tanker operators use these stations to get access to Watercare bulk water supplies for
their
customers. Access to these tanker fil ing stations is control ed and not available for individual
customer use."
So certain customers get access to no chlorine, no fluoride water, but not individual customers. So
the information on refil stations does not exist, right? Please confirm this is the information you are
supplying under the Act.
Yours sincerely,
Erika Whittome
Our response
This letter sets out our response to your emails dated 22 January and 18 February 2026.
As stated in our letter of 22 January 2026, all Watercare filling stations have residual
chlorine added from
the respective Water Treatment Plant supplying that area.
The tanker fil ing stations in Wellsford (105 Centennial Park Road, Wellsford), Warkworth (6 Brown Road,
Warkworth), and Helensvil e (37 Mil Road, Helensvil e) do not have
fluoride added.
This means that Watercare does not have any water refil ing stations available to the public that
are both
fluoride free and chemical free.
In summary:
• The water at all of Watercare’s tanker filling stations has residual chlorine
• The water at three of Watercare’s water tanker filling stations has no fluoride (see list above)
• There are no tanker fil ing stations that are both fluoride free and chlorine free.
Our tanker filing stations are for wholesale customers, who fill up large tankers with water, for distribution
to their retail customers. None of these tankers access chlorine free water as all water we sell has residual
chlorine from the treatment process.
It seems to us that you are asking whether an individual can access fluoride free water via a tanker fil ing
station. The only way that an individual customer like yourself would be able to access such fluoride free
water would be to buy water off a wholesale tanker operator who had fil ed up their tanker at one of the
three fluoride free tanker stations mentioned above.
Next steps
If you are unhappy with our response, we recommend that you:
• obtain your own legal advice, or
• contact the Ministry of Health using a form available on their website:
Official Information Act requests
| Ministry of Health NZ, or
• seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman for all of our responses. Information about how to
make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Tuan Hawke
Head of Operations Performance
