ecoli in Ennis water

rok

did anyone outside the Dáil drink the water?
They have re-instated the boil water notice.
Seems a bit of a farce that Ennis and surrounding areas are without a decent water treatment plant.
Ennis council will not supply water tankers



Government Ministers and TDs are running scared from water quality in Ennis as Green Party Cllr Brian Meaney brings Ennis water to Dáil
Issued: 12 October 2005

Statement by Brian Meaney

12 October 2005

Green Party Clare County Councillor Brian Meaney (Ennis) today set up shop outside the Dáil with containers of Ennis tap water to see if Government deputies and Ministers were prepared to drink the same water that they are asking the residents of Ennis to drink for the next two years.

Cllr. Meaney said that, “I travelled to the Dáil today to make the point that the water supply in Ennis is not a normal situation and that people will not accept it as such. We cannot allow the continuation of such indifference to the quality of drinking water. That message needs to be brought home to a Government where the majority of TDs and Ministers refuse to even the taste the water that people in Ennis have to drink for the next two years.”

The current situation is that the public drinking water in Ennis, Co. Clare remains unfit for many to drink despite the recent lifting of a three-week ban. A new treatment plant is required to make the water supply totally safe but this will not takeplace for another two years. Children under the age of five, people in care and those vulnerable to infection have been advised to seek alternative sources of water to the public supply.

Cllr Meaney continued, “There is the also the real possibility that people will, due to concerns about the water quality, drink below the minimum daily amount of water required for good health.”

“The Government have allowed their friends, the builders and developers, to profit at the detriment of people’s health by not providing the resources required to fund the necessary infrastructure in our rapidly expanding towns.”

“Apart from the obvious and unacceptable cost to human health, the water crisis in Ennis could cost €36,000 to the General Hospital in Ennis, based on the estimated two year wait for the water treatment plant to be upgraded – the hospital currently faces a monthly water bill of €1,500. On average people are estimated to be spending €35 a week on bottled water and there have been allegations of people profiteering from bottled water. In Ennis we now need an emergency response as the situation has long since gone past the point of urgency,” concluded Cllr. Meaney.

Mucco

There was some guy on the radio yesterday (Ennis coucillor?) saying that the problem is that demand has outstripped capacity. He said the town's water is only good for flushing toilets, which is a bit ironic, because if there was another water source for flushing toilets (rainwater), then capacity could probably still meet demand. Using drinking quality water (or not, in Ennis) to flush loos is a waste of resources.

TomF

I once worked in a company that got its toilet-flushing water from a mountain reservoir. When there were heavy rains near the reservoir, the water got muddy, and you would think someone before you had neglected to flush the toilet after use because the water in the bowl was brown.

However having parallel water supplies, potable and non-potable, for a city has not been proven practical for the most part because of the expense of excavation and laying two lines everywhere.

My local water supply comes from a huge spring that forms a river and the water is taken directly as the water rises from the ground and then is chlorinated. As often as the water supply is interrupted, I wonder how well maintained the system may be and whether bacteria get a chance to infect the piping.

fly_agaric

But wasn't Ennis the "CyberTown" or the "information age" town of the future or some such waffle a few year ago? Says it all really. :rolleyes:

Cork

rok wrote:

did anyone outside the Dáil drink the water?

It is a metter for the local Town & County Councils.

It is a metter for local government not central government.

Bring back civics in schools.

Thomond Pk

Sure didn't Ennis UDC get it wrong in 1953 on pavement gauge; The Department of Environment is therefore exonerated.

Dick Roche may bluster but water quality has never been worse; the environment it appears is a hindrence and not an asset in this country.

Sparks

Ye think Ennis has it bad? They stopped testing water for heavy metals in some parts of Wicklow a few years ago because they kept failing the test. Didn't bother to tell the poor sods who were actually drinking the stuff at the time, mind.
Britta seem to be doing a roaring trade in Wicklow nowadays...

Thomond Pk

You'd want a lot more than britta to purify the water in most of West Wicklow; when Dublin City Council writes a letter to An Bord Pleanala stating that half the water supply for Dublin is at risk of contamination we know just how bad water quality has become.

Then again Dublin City Council put in a playground swing slightly off square in 1972 so Dick certainly couldn't believe them.