EU delegation finds quality of our water hard to swallow

THE quality of our drinking water is a little hard to swallow, a European report has found.

Compiled by an EU delegation which travelled here two months ago, after it received complaints about the quality of drinking water in Galway and Kilkenny, it accuses the Department of the Environment of not providing the public with safe drinking water and lacking the will to put things right.

And it criticises the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for siding with local authorities when complaints are made. It also castigates the EPA for delays of more than a year in issuing reports on the quality of water, even when contamination is found.

Complainants Pat Grogan from Kilkenny and Jack Norton and others concerned about contaminated water in Galway say the report vindicates them. And it proves what they have said all along about the poor quality of drinking water. The EU report calls into question once again Ireland’s green image.

“Given what most people think they know about Ireland, one would imagine that water would be the least of the country’s problems. Judging by the number of petitions received on the subject by the European Parliament ... regular access to clean drinking water in line with the relevant EU directives is a major problem for the Irish authorities, both at national and local level, and even more so for citizens, especially in rural and semi-rural areas,” the report concludes.

It suggests there are a number of reasons for the poor quality of water in some areas. It cites structural problems between private group and public water schemes, and the lack of any clearly defined responsibility at national level for the functioning of local water treatment plants, which is solely a local responsibility. This situation is made worse by the fact that water distribution is free and local authorities levy no taxes on individuals for the distribution of water, the report says.

The delegation said there were “very serious and persistent current problems with public water schemes,” as witnessed and documented by petitioners. The group said it remained to be convinced that the intentions of the public authorities to improve the situation would be realised.

“Judging by the evidence contained in communications between the petitioner and the EPA, the EPA has a greater tendency to defend the position of local authorities which supply it with most of its information than its own integrity as an independent agency supposed to be acting to safeguard the population,” the report says.

The EPA defended its role in water monitoring, saying it had a supervisory and advisory role in such matters.

“The EPA has recently recommended that local authorities make monthly monitoring results available to consumers, through both their websites and their offices,” it said.