Community’s boil notice lifted after five months

Householders in a rural community were delighted to find out that, after five months, they will no longer have to boil their drinking water — but then they got the bad news.

Cork County Council had initially informed the 24 households at Gortnaskehy, Araglin, north-east Cork, that it would seek funds from the Department of the Environment to develop a well. Now it has decided it will protect the existing well, which had become contaminated with E.coli.

County engineer Noel O’Keeffe said the council put in equipment to kill the bacteria and after three tests found the supply clear. It then lifted the boil notice.