No funding for Southland project

Southland District Council will not receive any Government funding to improve drinking water supplies in the round of subsidies just announced by Health Minister Tony Ryall.

Council had applied for funding for the Riverton water supply project but received a letter turning its application down, group manager services and assets Erik Barnes said.

"I am disappointed but not surprised. We knew Riverton was lower on the deprivation index than the cut-off, but we hoped there was still a chance," Mr Barnes said.

Riverton sits at 6.3 on the deprivation index, with only communities on 7 or above eligible for subsidies (a community with a deprivation index of 10 is the least socially and materially well-off).

The Government has approved a total of $9.4 million in subsidies to improve drinking water supplies in small communities of fewer than 5000 people.

"These subsidies will help 18 territorial local authorities and 11 private supplies to providing safer drinking water for about 22,000 people in small, disadvantaged communities," Mr Ryall said in a release.

Up to $10 million is available each year until 2015 and the scheme will pay up to 85 per cent of costs. Originally launched in 2006, the Drinking Water Subsidy Scheme aims to help small communities establish or improve their drinking-water supplies. The criteria for the subsidies were changed last year amid concerns that the scheme was not targeting the communities most in need of the funding.