Dead animals spark health scare

HUNDREDS of people in West Cork were forced to boil their water yesterday after dead animals were found rotting in the river that supplies water to their town.

Cork County Council received a report on Saturday of a dead sheep in the River Clashduff on the Beara peninsula, about a mile upstream from the intake for Adrigole’s water supply.

Council officials, including a veterinary officer, went to the site near the scenic Healy Pass road, and found one dead sheep in the water and evidence of other carcasses nearby.

The council immediately issued a ‘boil water notice’ to almost 150 householders as a precautionary measure, a spokesman said.

Tests carried out later on Adrigole’s water treatment plant, which has a slow sand filtering and chlorination process, confirmed it was operating satisfactorily.

But more test samples were being examined yesterday and further information will be made available when the results are known, the spokesman said.