The Environmental Protection Agency is "very concerned" about the risk of cryptosporidium contamination in water supplies in many parts of the State due to substandard water treatment facilities, writes Liam Reid, Environment Correspondent
Dr Matt Crowe, programme manager with the EPA's office for environmental enforcement, said such facilities had not kept up with the rate of commercial and housing development in the country.
"At the moment we're very concerned because we have a situation where the provision of waste water treatment and drinking water treatment facilities have fallen behind the pace of development," he said.
"Until such time as that gap is addressed we will continue to be very concerned." He warned that untreated waste water and poorly treated drinking water posed a significant risk to human health from cryptosporidium.
"When you have inadequately treated sewage flowing into surface waters, that increases the risk. And when you have inadequately treated drinking water, that also increases the risk."
He added that additional action was needed to protect water sources from pollution and to ensure drinking water was provided to sufficient standards.
"Clean water is one of our most precious resources," he said. "We must not squander it. This generation is responsible for ensuring that our children and their children inherit good quality water."
The EPA last month received new powers to prosecute councils for inadequate drinking water supplies. Until last month the agency had a monitoring role in relation to drinking water quality but was unable to take action against any local authority.
Following the cryptosporidium outbreak in Galway, it wrote to all local authorities asking them to identify all water supplies which they are unable to protect against cryptosporidium, and to outline the plans to remediate or replace these facilities.
A previous incomplete survey two years ago found that 21 per cent of public drinking water supplies were at high risk of contamination with cryptosporidium. The EPA yesterday said it was satisfied that Galway city and county councils were now taking sufficient measures to address the crisis, which has resulted in 180 confirmed cases of illness from the bug and arose from the contamination of Galway's water supply from Lough Corrib with cryptosporidium.
However, Dr Crowe said the agency "still reserves the right" to take a prosecution against Galway City Council over the contamination. He added that the agency "wasn't surprised" at the outbreak in Galway as the water plant in the city had been identified as being at very high risk by the council two years ago. "The old Terryland plant was clearly not in a position to defend or protect people from cryptosporidium," he said.
Galway City Council is proposing to close the Terryland plant for refurbishment once a temporary supply from another plant is available by mid-June.