One in five drinking dodgy water

Almost one in every five people living in County Galway is supplied by dodgy drinking water.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed that some 32,364 residents of the county are connected to substandard water supplies that poses a ‘risk’. This equates to over 18% of the County Galway’s 175,124 residents.

Eleven public water schemes in all parts of the county are named in the EPA’s latest remedial action list, which names the supplies known to be ‘at risk’, and where corrective action is required by Irish Water.

A boil water notice, partial boil water notice or water restriction is in place at five of the schemes on the list, affecting 15,008 people. Four out of the five of these are due to the presence of potentially deadly parasite, cryptosporidium.

Irish Water is being hauled before the courts in relation to its failure to comply with an agreed programme of works at Carraroe public water supply. The scheme, serving 4,709 people, has inadequate treatment for cryptosporidium.

The proposed action programme includes PH correction, ozone, filtration, disinfection and other measures. The court case is listed for Dublin in May. Boil water notices or partial notices are in force in Kilconnell, Loughrea, Williamstown and Leenane.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.