Contaminated water - Stats present a terrifying picture

In THE past two years a tenth of all drinking water in this country has been contaminated with E-coli or the cryptosporidium parasite, according to a report published today by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

About 8% of all public water supplies have been contaminated with human or animal waste.

According to the report titled The Provision and Quality of Drinking Water in Ireland 2006-2007, this country has the highest rate of cryptosporidiosis in Europe. A third of the country’s private water supplies are contaminated, a truly horrifying figure. At least 64 supplies to 135,000 people are at risk of a cryptosporidiosis outbreak similar to what happened in Galway last year.

Those supplies have no filtration system other than chlorination, which does not kill cryptosporidium. The report also highlights the “inadequacy of treatment plants”. It warns that a great many of them “are operating under conditions of high risk”. Moreover, the EPA states that a further 339 water schemes — providing a third of all the water available to the public — are not up to standard.

While there has been some improvement in public supplies in the past couple of years, there has been no improvement in private supplies. These overall statistics present a picture that ranges from frightening to terrifying.

The people most at risk are inevitably the very young, the elderly, or the sick. The most vulnerable people are effectively being put a risk. This is an intolerable situation.