IRELAND’S WATER is not as clean as we would like to think. The rate of cryptosporidiosis here is four times the EU average and higher than any other member state, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. “Another Galway-type outbreak is inevitable,” warns Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE).
Hundreds of people became ill in 2007 before Galway city’s water supply was shut down for five months due to contamination by the dangerous pathogen cryptosporidium as well as E.coli bacteria and localised lead pollution. Water had to be boiled for human consumption and many residents had to rely on tankers or bottled water.
Water expert Dr Frances Lucy, of Sligo Institute of Technology, agrees that we will see more of this. “For years, we have taken our waters for granted and, while attitudes are changing, unless we plan properly now for the coming decades, water crises such as the Cryptosporidium epidemic in Galway in 2007, will become more frequent.”
For read the full article see here-http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1107/1224307165921.html
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