Pesticides in drinking water - A stark warning

We have a long tradition of less than rigorous regulation in myriad areas.

Unfortunately, that is matched with a propensity to ignore regulators with the temerity to tell us that things are not rosy in the garden, that we are behaving in ways that will inevitably have negative consequences.

At this point, the regulators working with the Environmental Protection Agency must either despair or maybe wonder if we will ever mend our ways.

Their peers in Irish Water may feel the same. They have warned that excessive levels of pesticides have been found in the Glanmire, Glengarriff, and Macroom public water supplies.

Emphasising that there is no threat to health, this seems a stitch-in-time-warning. The cumulative impact of excessive pesticide use must be, just as with antibiotics, a cause of concern.

That a single drop of pesticide is enough to breach the drinking water limit in a small stream for up to 30km shows how very high the stakes are.

This is an area where we simply cannot look the other way and, if necessary, the stiffest sanctions must be applied to offenders.