Father appeals for water tankers after children take ill

A FATHER whose two children were hospitalised after drinking tap water that is under a boil notice has appealed to Limerick County Council to bring in water tankers to their private estate in Croom.

Medical rep Tommy O’Donoghue yesterday brought his son Thomas, 5, home from the Mid-Western Regional Hospital where he had been brought in a dehydrated condition.

Mr O’Donoghue said he has no doubt that his son became ill after brushing his teeth using water that had not been boiled.

Last February, his son David, 3, was taken to hospital with similar symptoms after drinking water at their home in the Cois Shrutháin estate.

Mr O’Donoghue said: “My two children who became ill do not have a voice, but to see your sons with saline drips coming out of their arms, in pain, rubbing their stomachs is an awful thing.

“I am an just saying to the council, it is eight months now, please do something for our estate. It has gone beyond a joke. Even if it is bringing in tankers of drinking water, it would be appreciated.”

Thomas was brought into hospital on Monday.

Mr O’Donoghue said: “He was dehydrated and vomiting, with diarrhoea. Thankfully the vomiting stopped. Without shadow of a doubt this was caused by the water coming into our house.”

Mr O’Donoghue and his wife, Myra, who also have a daughter, Aimee, 10, have covered all the taps in the house to try and prevent the children from drinking unboiled water.

They have also shut off the shower unit.

He said: “Unfortunately, Thomas decided to wash his teeth the other night and now he was hospitalised as a result. Every household experiences a water shortage, and it is not a nice thing. We have three young children, you need water. Even as adults it is a basic right to have clean drinking water, and we don’t have that.

“It is a huge inconvenience. We buy large quantities of bottled water and this is costing €24 a day. When there was a widescale problem in Galway it was sorted out. But because this is an isolated event in a private housing estate in a small area and there are a lot of families affected by this.”

Limerick County Council director of water services, Paul Crowe, said the estate was privately developed and the water supply came from an independent source.

However, as the water regulator, he said the council has a supervisory role to ensure that quality of the water supply was complaint with the necessary standards.

Mr Crowe said they were in talks with the developer of the estate towards getting a long-term solution.

Mr Crowe said bringing in water in tanks would not resolve the situation as that supply would also carry a boil notice.