![\"Christie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/claire-christie-ADUPYJLILNAGTBAI54A4RZW7XE.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA council has finally backed down after a woman with kidney failure was hit with a large water bill for her life-saving dialysis treatment.<\/p>\n
Claire Christie uses a haemodialysis machine at her Christchurch home four times a week to clean her blood, performing the job her kidneys can no longer do.<\/p>\n
She argued she should not be financially penalised for using large amounts of water for vital treatment. But Selwyn Council took months to agree before finally giving her a substantial reduction.<\/p>\n
“It’s not an exaggeration to say it’s a life-saving treatment,” Christie said. “If it wasn’t for this, there’s a good chance that I would have died in a week.”<\/p>\n
But the treatment requires large quantities of water. Christie said her dialysis machine uses about 100 litres every hour.<\/p>\n
The cost became an issue after she recently moved to a new home outside Christchurch, where her water supply comes under Selwyn District Council.<\/p>\n
Claire Christie uses a haemodialysis machine at her home four times a week. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
“Your water is separate to your rates out here, so we got a water bill that was quite significantly expensive,” she said.<\/p>\n
The family’s water bill was more than $600 for the quarter.<\/p>\n
Christie, whose kidneys failed when she was 17, contacted the council to argue that her medical circumstances should be taken into account.<\/p>\n
“I rang them and I said, look, it’s not fair that I am medically dependent on water. I cannot help it because this machine uses 100 litres every hour.”<\/p>\n
Varies between councils<\/p>\n
Kidney Health New Zealand said the issue can affect other dialysis patients, with water charging varying between councils.<\/p>\n
General manager Madi Keay said home dialysis was essential treatment that could not simply be reduced to save money.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Christie (left) received a kidney transplant from her sister in 2011, giving her three years without needing dialysis. (Source: Facebook\/Claire’s Second Chance)<\/p>\n
“It’s something that cannot be delayed or shortened. It’s essential to staying alive.<\/p>\n
“So if people couldn’t afford to continue dialysing at home, they would need to opt to dialyse in a hospital.”<\/p>\n
Keay said hospital dialysis units were already “incredibly overstretched”.<\/p>\n
After months of discussions, Christie said her family secured a 50% reduction in their water bill, bringing the cost “right back down”.<\/p>\n
Selwyn Water said it had a waivers and remissions policy for customers with qualifying medical needs.<\/p>\n
“Claire’s remission was assessed under that policy and is ongoing,” it said in a statement. “We apologise to Claire for the delay.”<\/p>\n
Christie said she was grateful the issue had been resolved but hoped other dialysis patients would also receive support.<\/p>\n
“I’m grateful that they have now listened and I really hope that a really supportive plan is put in place for all patients.”<\/p>\n
Selwyn Water said customers could apply for assistance, with applications assessed under its policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A council has finally backed down after a woman with kidney failure was hit with a large water…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[158,134,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-635583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}