‘Luck’ has kept water crisis at bay
He also said a “rational and environmental argument” exists for introducing water rates as good quality drinking water is very expensive to produce.
Dr Vincent O’Flaherty, who is a member of the Enhancing Human Health Through Improving Water Quality project, also recommended a national water authority be put in place to oversee the planning and co-ordination of water treatment and monitoring.
Irish water, Dr O’Flaherty pointed out, is generally of poor quality as our water treatment facilities have failed to keep pace with housing development.
His comments come after an outbreak of E-coli was reported in Swords, Co Dublin. About 160 households have been issued with tankers of water following a warning that the supply has been contaminated.
Fingal County Council is working to identify the source of the contamination. Councillors have said they believe a water mains pipe burst and the supply was contaminated, probably by an agricultural run-off.
Last month, South Tipperary County Council advised users of the Clonmel Town water supply to boil water before use as routine sampling of Glenary water supply had shown the presence of cryptosporidium.
In Galway, tap water has been out of bounds since last March when cryptosporidium was detected. The HSE says it is now clean but it is awaiting clearance from the EPA before lifting the boil notice.
E-coli was also found in Ennis water last month.
“In Fingal, building work could have been taking place and faeces, either animal or human, could have leaked into the water system causing cross contamination.
“It’s just luck so far that outbreaks have been limited and that there hasn’t been a serious public health crisis,” said Dr Flaherty.
“We are not taking water quality seriously in this country. The EPA’s annual reports show that water is contaminated by faeces from both animals and humans,” he said.
He called for better co-operation between the Department of the Environment, town and county councils and the EPA on delivering water treatment facilities.
“We really could do with a national water authority which would have overall responsibility over the different agencies. There is an unacceptable time lag between housing development and the construction of water treatment facilities for those houses. It’s just too slow. Ideally, water treatment should be in place before the development begins and we need more monitoring of quality,” he said.
“For instance in Oughterard, Co Galway, housing development should have been halted while treatment facilities were upgraded. There is a lack of awareness of the potential public health fallout of poor water quality.”
A survey last month of 16 European countries found Ireland had the highest incidence of water-borne outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis
The number of cases per head of population in Ireland in 2005 was seven times greater than the European average, according to the report in Eurosurveillance, a leading scientific journal on communicable disease.
