‘It is ridiculous the water is contaminated and it is ridiculous if we have to pay for it’

‘If we were not about to have a byelection there would be damn all talk in the Dáil about our water problems’

Inside the door of the SuperValu supermarket in Boyle, Co Roscommon, there is a queue at the machine dispensing filtered water. It costs just 50 cent for five litres as long as you bring your own container, and if there's one thing people in Boyle have in abundance it is empty water bottles.

Nobody in the town seems impressed with the announcement of a reprieve from water charges for the many in the county who have been living with contaminated supplies.

“If we were not about to have a byelection there would be damn all talk in the Dáil about our water problems,” said retired postman Jimmy O’Connor.

He says it is ludicrous people can’t drink water from the tap. “We would prefer to pay the charge and be able to drink the water.

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"I remember when I was a child 60 years ago, and we gave pennies for Africa so that babies there could have clean water, and today in Roscommon our children can't drink the water in a so-called first-world country."

Water filters

Bruno Beo from

Sardinia

recently opened a bar and restaurant on the Crescent in Boyle, and the first thing he did was to pay €600 for filters.

“Otherwise I would have to boil the water or get it somewhere else. We don’t know how many people decide not to come to Boyle to eat because they worry about the water. It is ridiculous that the water is contaminated and it is ridiculous if we have to pay for it.”

Mary Flynn from Boyle is the mother of three children aged from 11 to 17. She agrees that the upcoming byelection prompted this week’s announcement about a 100 per cent discount for those with contaminated water.

Filling up her containers in SuperValu she feels luckier than parents of small babies who are terrified of tummy bugs and infection.

“I’m just worried that soon after the byelection they will say, ‘okay we let you off for six months, now you have to pay’.”

Benny O’Connell who runs Benny’s bakery and restaurant on Main Street, Castlerea, says the water has been contaminated on and off for up to four years. He paid €1,000 for his own treatment system, and says that as a commercial business he has to pay about €4,000 a year in water rates.

Commercial customers

“I am delighted that the long- suffering domestic customers are getting a break but I expect and assume that commercial customers will also be exempt from water charges.”

He got advice from the HSE before installing the treatment system. “It’s impossible to run a business like this if there is cryptosporidium in the water. You can’t wash salads or provide drinking water for your customers unless the water is safe.”

John Costello from Boyle has no doubt the announcement of a reprieve is linked to the byelection. “I think it is a cynical gesture.”

Marese McDonagh

Marese McDonagh

Marese McDonagh, a contributor to The Irish Times, reports from the northwest of Ireland