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.

Public distrust of water quality has been growing for some time, as is evidenced by the phenomenal growth in the sale of bottled water, which must be setting all-time records in Galway, at present. And Galway is not the only place where people are now boiling tap water before drinking it.

While the Galway stomach ''bug'' is getting most of the headlines, pressure is growing nationally for action on dirty water. Time is running out for the Government to ensure drinking water quality is up to the standards required by the EU authorities.

There's also continuing concern about group schemes. The EPA has described the quality of water in private group schemes as the most challenging issue facing the people responsible with providing us with safe drinking water in Ireland.

Failure to comply with the EU Water Quality Directive could lead to severe penalties for the Government, which has set aside around EURO 600m in the National Development Plan to improve the water we drink every day.

The EPA, in its report on the quality of drinking water for 2004, said water provided to 84 per cent of the population by the public authorities was satisfactory, while the quality of water provided to less than 7 per cent of the population by private group schemes was unsatisfactory.

The EPA said the primary reason for the unsatisfactory status of the private schemes was the relatively low percentage of samples complying with the E.coli regulations

“The poor microbiological quality of the private group water schemes is the most challenging issue facing the authorities charged with responsibility for drinking water in Ireland,” the EPA said.

Another cause of concern is that many local authorities are not carrying out enough monitoring of supplies and not analysing enough samples. According to the EPA, no monitoring was carried out on 26 per cent of public group supplies and on 10 per cent of private group schemes.

The need for a national water monitoring programme has already been highlighted to the Dept of the Environment by expert advisers.

Meanwhile, what is being hailed as a groundbreaking development in water filtration, developed by Irish company Aqua-Nu Filtration Systems Ltd, could help solve the world's water quality problem. It is known as the Puritycap filtration device.

According to the United Nations (UN), a third of the world's population - more than 1.2 billion people - have no access to clean water. Water contamination is also the biggest single health risk to children, contributing to the deaths of 15 million children under five years, annually.

The development of the Puritycap could also remove tens of millions of plastic bottles from the environment in Ireland and around the world, as the device can be used by consumers in their everyday lives as an alternative to buying individual plastic bottles of water.

The filtration device attaches to the majority of standard water bottles and plastic soft drink bottles. By using it, a single bottle can be filled an re-filled over again with tap water, providing the drinker with the highest quality, pure, filtered drinking water at a fraction of the cost, both financially and environmentally, of buying bottled water, say the promoters.

This technology can also be applied to household water taps and other drinking water systems.

Its development came about from collaboration between Irish and UK inventors and scientists, who claim it has the ability to remove and kill 100% of E. coli, as well as removing other potential contaminants such as synthetic oestrogen, heavy metals, herbicides, pesticides and chlorine found in tap water.

Dr Robert Verkerk, an internationally-acclaimed scientist and chief scientific consultant to Aqua-Nu Filtration Systems, said people could now go to any water tap and fill up a bottle, screw on the Puritycap and drink high quality, filtered, uncontaminated water.

“Whether at work, home or on the move, this technology will help consumers to drink clean water the healthiest way: little and often, between meals. It will revolutionise water drinking as it is so convenient, portable and affordable,” he added.

If the Puritycap becomes a commercial success, it could hit the sales of bottled water and it could also reduce the 114,000 tonnes of plastic packaging currently disposed of each year by local authorities in Ireland.