April 01, 2007
Gan uisce, gan cliste
In the weeks and months after the atrocity of US 9/11 attacks, there was plenty of debate in Ireland about how the country would cope with a mass casualty event. Could planes be hijacked in an Irish airport ? What if Sellafield was attacked ? I still have the iodine tablets posted out to every household by the government to protect us from radiation poisoning [I'm hanging on to them in case Cork finally declares itself an independent republic and launches a pre-emptive strike on the rest of us].
Well, now we know what would happen if someone poisoned the water supply of one of our cities - sod all. The problem with Galway's water has the potential to kill people - the very young, the very old or anyone with a weakened immune system. It has severely sickened about 160 people so far, and more will probably fall ill in the weeks ahead. The solution so far, and I use the word in the loosest term possible, is not to drink any tap water without boiling it first. How, for example, a mother with three small children is supposed to ensure that her kids don't imbibe a drop without watching them 24 hours a day is a mystery. And, despite the Celtic Tiger, buying bottled water by the gallon is effectively a very hefty water charge for everyone.
The Mayor, Niall O'Brolcháin, has been the public face of the City councillors attempts in trying to find a solution. Except when he tried to call a meeting with Galway City Council officials, they didn't show up, citing procedure protocol (the necessary pre-meeting approving the emergency meeting hadn't been held first). Indeed. In the meetings that have gone ahead, the implementation of a solution has been spoken of in terms of weeks or months. Some emergency.
Now, there are three Government ministers based in the wider Galway area, so you'd expect some rapid government response, particularly since the Mayor and other councillors had appealed for Government help. That's when Eamonn O'Cuiv discovered that Galway City Council had already been allocated 21 million euro to improve water treatment in the city. And they still had the 21 million, not having spent a cent of it. Ah.
It has to be said that the reasons given for not spending the cash were of the "the dog ate my homework" variety. Dick Roche, Minister for the Environment, and usually a target for the Greens, announced that he would go to Galway and knock a few heads together. It must have made his week to lecture a potential Green Party TD on the merits of clean water. There could not have been a more fortuitous time for a local environmental issue to erupt [this close to a general election] short of O'Brolcháin driving up to Annaghdown with a trailer load of sheep and throwing them in off the pier himself. So much so, that the third Fianna Fail candidate, Michael Crowe, launched an attack on O'Brolcháin, claiming he hadn't reacted fast enough to the crisis. He did so just as an opinion poll showed O'Brolchain edging past Crowe. As a famous football manager once said, it's squeaky bum time.
Roche promised an extra 27 million euro when he visited Galway. The original 21 million will be spent replacing the Terryland water plant - it provides 30% of the water for the city it is that plant that cannot filter the cryptosporidium parasite. I would have thought it would have been better to just use the other plant (and maybe crank the capacity up to eleven) but apparently not. Since both plants feed into the same reservoir, a malfunction in either plant poisons all the water. Eventually, a new supply of water will be taken from that bastion of purity to the north, Tuam.
And that's it. Bottles of water for the foreseeable future, and hope for the best. If something more serious had been in the water supply, what then ? Both Mayo and Clare are reporting similar, though smaller, outbreaks.The problem isn't just confined to municipal water supplies. Over the last few years, group water supply schemes have been opened and extended all over the country, due to the rapid increase in housing development. And these RTE reports show, in Athenry and Ballinasloe, contamination continues to be a problem. Water, water everywhere, but should you drink it ?
McGarr solicitors have some interesting information on their website here, here and here.
cryptosporidium, environment, water,O'Brolcháin,terryland, corrib, galway, ireland, irishblogs, photoblogs, photography, galwayblogs, monasette, Canon, 5D, march, 2007
Posted by Monasette at April 1, 2007 08:48 PM