Community with contaminated water hit with new scare

A LIMERICK community whose contaminated water supply has been subject to a “boil notice” for the past 16 months was hit with a new water scare yesterday following further contamination.

More than 250 households in the Ballingarry and Kilfinny areas have been unable to drink tap water since November 2005 after a number of local children were stricken with potentially fatal e-coli infections.

A new boil alert went out yesterday to hundreds of more households supplied from the adjoining Ballingarry (Upper) Group Scheme.

This new alert has been directed at pregnant women and children under the age of two living in the Ballingarry area where hundreds of households are already under the 2005 boil notice.

The council issued the waning after a test last week showed up dangerous levels of nitrates in the supply serving the Ballingarry area. The HSE spokesman said this would indicate seasonal agricultural effluent.

The Kilfinny Group Scheme draws its supply from four different sources.

A spokesman for the Health Service Executive (HSE) Mid-West said: “The HSE has been in touch with local GPs, Shannondoc, food outlets and any persons running creches to remind them of the need to take precautions in light of these latest findings in relation to the water supply.”

A local member of Limerick County Council, Tom Neville is one of the affected households in the Kilfinny Group Scheme area.

Cllr Neville said: “We still have the boil notice since November 2005. We buy in litres of bottled waters every week. Funding has been granted to the council by the EU to upgrade 19 group water schemes in the county. Work has commenced on upgrading our local scheme. Three of the four sources used for the supply are ready to go and remedial work on the fourth source will be completed in a matter of weeks. When this work is completed the scheme will have to be process approved.”

It is expected that this entire process could take a further three months before the boil notice is lifted.

Two children living in the area became very ill in 2005 and after initially being treated at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital they were transferred to Temple Street Children’s hospital when their condition deteriorated.

Further tests there found that the children had e-coli.

Both have since made a full recovery.