Undrinkable water for the last 14 years - but we still have to pay water charges

With water charges coming down the line, Erica Doyle Higgins meets one group of residents who have reached boiling point.

It was an exciting time for Margaret and Sean Landers. Embarking on a new phase of their lives in 1999, they moved to a new home in Skeheenarinky, Co Tipperary.

However, the happy couple were unaware their lives and the lives of their children would be badly affected — and still is — for the next 14 years.

“Our son Patrick was born on June 26, 2000. When he was weaned 8 weeks later, I was making his bottles with the tap water and what was left at the bottom of the bottles was a sandstone residue,” recalls Margaret Landers.

“I contacted the health board and they sent out someone to do a water analysis and we were immediately put on a boil water notice and, effectively, it’s never been lifted.”

Margaret and Sean Landers are both schoolteachers and parents to three teenage children. They moved to the Black Road in Skeheenarinky in Co Tipperary in 1999 and were unaware at the time of the water problems in the area.

Now they have almost 15 years of boil water notices and water sample results sheets. In 2001, coliform and coli was found in their water system, seven days later their water tested clear. However, this cycle of infected and clear water was repeated regularly over the next 14 years.

“The children would have a stomach bug, or perhaps we’d feel a little off but we never attributed that to our water, until we got it tested,” says Sean.

“When you move to a new house, you expect to be able to use the water. You don’t expect to go through numerous washing machines, taps, showers and kettles because the sandstone residue in the water acts as sandpaper and wears down motors and fittings.”

“I spend €1.29 a day on five litres of water for the house, and we’ve done that for 14 years, and perhaps up to €45 a week on water bottles for school now that our children are in secondary school. Our children have never gone to a tap, turned it on and drank a glass of water from it. Never,” says Margaret.

“When visitors come we have to tell them, there’s the drum of water to wash your teeth with, but you should be ok in the shower. It sounds crazy but that’s how we live now.”

Neighbour Declan Duggan, who lives less than 500 yards away, has been on a boil water notice for the last five years.

“I’ve grown up in Skeheenarinky all my life, my parents used to have the filling station on the main road, and there was always a problem with the water, as soon as it rained the water went brown but then within a couple of days it went back to normal and it was ‘good clean Galtee Mountain water!’” “However,” Declan continues, “there was something about 2009. Eleanor, my wife, had suffered two kidney infections in a month and asked the council to check the water. Sure enough there was e.coli.”

Less than a week later, the county council told them that their water was fine again.

However, something was bothering Declan so he took a sample of his water to the laboratory where he works and was told by the lab technician: “You’ve shit in your water.” Declan’s brother, who lives on a separate road in the same area, also had access to a lab at work. His water also tested positive for e.coli. Again, after the council had given it the all clear.

The council then tested houses in the area that voiced their concerns and asked for their water to be tested. They were given follow up tests in the sequential years but were not given the results. After this, they put a boil notice on the Black Road, the School House Road all the way to the county bounds, in the Skeheenarinky area. It has not been lifted since.

Siobhan Maher is a resident on the School House Road, a community less than 2km from the Black Road with less than 20 houses. She moved to Skeheenarinky 13 years ago, when she married her husband Tom who is originally from the area, they have three children under 12.

“When I shower, I have to cover myself with moisturising body lotion afterwards because my skin gets dry and sore from the chlorine in the water. My son is the same; his skin is dry and has started to crack and flake.”

Declan Duggan is clearly frustrated. “In any company that puts liquid into peoples’ mouths, if they have e.coli or any issue with the product they are selling, they would be shut down overnight.”

Local Labour Cllr Seanie Lonergan has an explanation.

“The little rivers and streams are coming from all over the mountain, and with surface water, you can’t control what goes in of the water.

“Sheep, deer, rats and their droppings all go into the river and that’s how it becomes infected with coliform and e.coli.”

In 2009 a lot of people in the area got sick, including a few of the children. The HSE did not accept there was a cluster of gastro-related illnesses, because the reports didn’t all come from one doctor.

“We don’t have street lights, they took away our post boxes, we have to drive 20 minutes to a local shop, we don’t have wifi,” says one resident.

“Our filling station is closed down, Gardaí are a half hour away, the ambulance is an hour away and now we can’t drink our water?”

The council notice says to boil the water before cooking, and drinking, don’t use it to brush your teeth, and before you give it to your pets, boil it and let it cool. “There you go,” says another resident, “it’s not even fit for dogs.”

Local politicians claim funding has been sanctioned for a scheme, but it will be two years before it is operating, so there is an end to this boil water notice in sight.

With water charges looming, many residents are prepared to unite to fight them. When asked if they will be made pay for water they can’t use, Sarah Foley, the policy analyst for the Commission of Energy Regulation was unsure: “No decisions have been taken on water tariff methodology and the charging system. Under legislation, Irish Water is required to calculate and submit a proposed water charges plan for the CER to approve.”

Jimmy Harney, on behalf of Tipperary County Council, says the treatment facility was not their issue as Irish Water are responsible for it as of January 1. He says they are still testing the water on a regular basis.

At the time of publication, Irish Water, who are now in control of the construction of a water treatment facility at nearby Burncourt, were unavailable for comment.