Keeping the lid on contaminated water

GIVEN that many of the sources of our drinking water are polluted, about the only surprise to emerge from the current contamination of public water supplies in Galway is that it did not happen a long time ago, somewhere in the country.

Rivers and lakes are the source of 75 per cent of our drinking water and, as several studies have been showing for decades, such sources have become seriously polluted.

Also, many private group schemes - more than two-thirds in Co Roscommon alone - have become contaminated by animal and human waste seeping from farmyards and septic tanks. Up to 150,000 households countrywide depend on private schemes for their water.