3 days ago
The water cremation floodgates are officially open in Aotearoa
It's the biggest change to the funeral industry in over a century, and there's already a queue forming.
This month, a Christchurch woman named Margaret made history as the first person in New Zealander to be water cremated. 'She had been unwell for some time, and she wanted to be the first,' says Debbie Richards, founder of Water Cremation New Zealand. 'She was a very adventurous woman and a bit of a pioneer, and she'll always be a very special person to me.'
A gold plaque with Margaret's name on it was unveiled last week in the water crematorium at Bell, Lamb and Trotter in Ōtautahi, one of the country's oldest funeral homes. Richards and managing director Andrew Bell then cut the giant red ribbon around the resomator, the giant SUV-sized stainless steel machine responsible for water cremation. A patter of polite applause heralded the arrival of a groundbreaking new technology for people seeking a more eco-friendly option in death.
Despite this being the biggest thing to happen to dying in Aotearoa in about 100 years, the opening ceremony was relatively small. Notable guests included Margaret's family, representatives from Ngāi Tahu, Labour MP Duncan Webb and Reverend Dr Peter Carrell. Before he led the room in prayer, he apologised for not being able to stay for food and drink afterwards. 'As it happens, I have a funeral to go to on the other side of the city,' he said.
Richards, a former midwife and nurse, has been championing water cremation since 2018. During the water cremation process, the body is wrapped in a shroud and dissolved in a 95% water 5% alkaline solution. After four or so hours, all that is left are 'pure white' bones (given to the family as ashes), any implants or prosthesis (which are recycled), and a sterile liquid (which enters the wastewater system). It is 90% less harmful to the environment than flame cremation, which produces 242kg of carbon dioxide (roughly the same amount as driving a petrol car from Christchurch to Cape Reinga).
After the ribbon cutting ceremony, I got chatting to Dean Fisher who was an early adopter of water cremation when working with donated bodies at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and had travelled all the way over here for the opening. He explained that flame cremation is more 'violent' than the watery alternative, which is much closer to the natural decomposition process found in soil. 'We're just gently moving liquid around you, breaking down soft tissue and leaving the bone. More or less, we are skeletonising the body.' A woman offered me a chicken skewer, and I politely declined.
Squeamishness aside, there's an undeniably attractive environmental appeal here – the Christchurch resomator has a carbon footprint of zero at the point of use. 'These aren't putting anything into the atmosphere at all,' says Fisher. 'They're all throughout the US and Europe now, people see the environmental side of this and they just love it.
'I'm so happy for the people of New Zealand, because now you have another choice. It might not be your choice, but it's giving a choice for somebody else,' Fisher adds. Currently around 80% of New Zealanders are cremated by flame (average cost of $5,000), the remaining opting for either plot burials (which costs an average of $10,000) or natural burials (average cost just under $5,000). Water cremation doesn't require a casket and is a slightly more affordable option than flame, arriving at a time where funeral costs are in the spotlight.
Although the environmental benefits are clear, it hasn't been easy for Richards to swim against the tide. The last major advancement in the local funeral industry came in 1909 with the first flame cremation, and prior to that was embalming in 1896. The Burial and Cremation Act was written in 1964 – so old that it still mentions pounds and shillings – so trying to pioneer something new after over a century of stasis was a regulatory 'rollercoaster', says Richards ('I don't want to talk about the council,' she would jibe in her opening speech.)
One of the last and most significant hurdles was securing a water permit from the Christchurch City Council to release the processed liquid into the water treatment system. Richards worked closely with water engineers, had an independent report written by GHD, and crucially secured local support from mana whenua. 'It's always hardest being the first – we knew were always going to be the ones that would be the most closely scrutinised, so we've just had to be completely transparent and share all the knowledge that we have,' she says.
And with Richards having done the hard yards in Ōtautahi with Bell, Lamb and Trotter, the floodgates are now open for more people in the funeral industry to follow suit. 'It's the first in the country, but I believe there's going to be a few people not too far behind us,' says Richards. 'I'm getting emails from city councils around the country, wanting to know what we've done and how we've done it, so they can replicate and be able to offer the process as well. I would like to help people, because I want this to be an option for everybody in New Zealand.'
Reflecting on nearly a decade of work to bring water cremation to Aotearoa, Richards says stubbornness helped a great deal. 'I just hung in there and I didn't give up,' she laughs. 'People have wanted me to go away, and I just haven't.' With people now ringing her from all around the country seeking guidance about council regulations and water treatment, she says that her main piece of advice is staying the course. 'Keep going and don't let them turn you away. You can get there in the end – you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.'
