Beaches closed - We must do better

Though this summer’s unprecedented rainfall has played a part in the E.coli outbreak that has closed seven beaches in Co Cork, we cannot pretend that human mismanagement has not played its part.

The water at Youghal’s Front Strand carried nearly four times the allowable EU level of the bacteria, which can cause severe vomiting, diarrhoea, and even death.

Youghal, like many other towns, does not have a proper sewage treatment system and still, in 2012, dumps raw effluent into the sea. Similar circumstances caused the Galway cryptosporidium outbreak in Lough Corrib in 2007.

Will someone have to die before we put the kind of planning arrangements in place that would prevent disgraceful pollution and beach closures like this?