North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Uisce, Briste

Huge wave crashing on shore at Doolin, Co. Clare.

The Galway Water Crisis group held a protest in the city today, to campaign for free drinking water to be supplied to everyone while the contaminated water crisis rumbles on. And, typically for Galway, their open-air protest coincided with the first downpour in weeks (at least it will put the bog fires out). And even more typically, not many people turned up. If there was a campaign for free booze, they might have got a better turn-out.

Meanwhile, the people of Eyrecourt, east Galway are also protesting - waste from the Mutton Island sewage plant in the city is due to be spread on land near their village. The sewage spreading is a planned activity - the locals are complaining that run-off will contaminate their water supply (and the current heavy rain certainly won't help). And whatever about the impact of the Eyrecourt activity on the water table of east Galway, a similar activity might point to the cause of the Corrib pollution that has contaminated the city's water supply.

The sewage treatment in Oughterard has been blamed for contaminating Lough Corrib, but the council insist that the treated waste pumped into Lough Corrib meets the minimum standard. However, in the last few decades, there has been a huge number of one-off houses (I.e. single dwellings) built around the lake and its environs. Many of those houses have their own septic tank. A septic tank collects sewage from a house, and 'treats' it by enabling bacteria to break down the material into a nitrogen-rich sludge and water. Well, that's what's supposed to happen. Toilet bleach can kill the bacteria, and overflowing septic tanks, due to rain, means that untreated waste can leach into the ground. I wonder if any private septic tanks have been inspected this year ?

And then there is the question of disposal. Each of those private tanks must be emptied regularly. I'd like to think that the contents of each of those tanks are disposed of in a careful and environmentally-safe manner. But, then again, I used to like to think there was a Santa Claus too.

wave, water, doolin, clare, sewage, ireland, irishblogs, photoblogs, photography, galwayblogs, monasette, north atlantic skyline,Canon, 5D, april, 2007

Posted by Monasette at April 23, 2007 04:45 PM