Council & Infrastructure / News & Community Feedback / News and Information / Media Releases
21 February 2018
Bega Valley Shire Council will seek approval from the Secretary of NSW Health to extend the state funded, fluoridation program to all public water supplies within the Shire, after today’s Council meeting provided a resolution to this long-running issue.
The decision of Council comes on the back of a detailed community information process and a recent community survey that was undertaken to determine a statistically valid community view on the subject.
Conducted by the Social Research Centre (SRC), a business unit of the Australian National University, the survey asked “Do you agree with adding fluoride to the public drinking supply to try to prevent tooth decay?”
The results of the survey were made publicly available on 29 January, with the key results being:
With the resolution in the affirmative, Council will now proceed in accordance with Section 6 of the Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies Act 1957 and work closely with the NSW Department of Health towards implementation.
In practice, the implementation process will require extensive capital asset construction (fully funded by the NSW State Government); human resource considerations and staff training; and policy and procedures reviews, meaning that it is expected to be a number of years before the Tantawanglo-Kiah and Brogo-Bermagui water supplies come in line with their sister Bega-Tathra supply, that has been fluoridated since 1963.
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