Estate awaits test results amid fears of water pollution

Residents of a Co Wicklow housing estate are awaiting results of tests for Weils disease, after a two-year-old boy became ill following contact with a contaminated water supply in his home.

Mr Michael Lambert and his wife Linda, of Thomastown, near Arklow, used tap water to clean a cut on their son Vincent's face the day before he became sick with diarrhoea and flu-like symptoms. Other children in the estate also became sick.

Doctors ordered tests for Weils disease, a potentially fatal illness which can be contracted through coming into contact with rat urine. The tests were carried out at the National Children's Hospital but results will not be available for two weeks.

Residents said they had been complaining to Wicklow County Council for 18 months about foul smells from sewers. The Lamberts said they caught a rat in their bedroom and three more in a shed. Neighbours also reported rat infestation to the County Council, which responded by hiring a specialist firm to lay poison. However, the Lamberts feel that either the poisoned rats or the sewage contaminated the water supply, which comes from a nearby bored well.

"We are terribly worried. Weils disease can be fatal and the doctors have put Vincent on antibiotics just in case. If he does have the disease we probably caught it in the incubation stage and it can be treated, but it is an awful thing to have to live with," Mrs Lambert told The Irish Times.

Yesterday, as the county council prepared to pump water from tankers into the water system, the council's senior administrative officer, Mr Seamus Walker, confirmed the well water was contaminated. "The well water is tested regularly by the county council and the Eastern Health Board and a sample taken on November 18th showed up as contaminated. We immediately cut off the supply and then restored it after warning residents that it was to be used only for flushing lavatories," said Mr Walker.

The well is unusual in that the water was pure and did not require any treatment before being piped into the houses, explained Mr Walker, who added that extensive testing since November had shown that the contamination was still present. "We are very frustrated by this. There are a number of tests still to be carried out but we may have to go ahead and bore a new well. That well may turn out to be contaminated also but we have to try to alleviate this situation any way we can. Conditions for the residents are bad, especially in the run- up to Christmas. "Up to now, we have been using small tankers which supply water for cooking and drinking, but we are now bringing a larger tanker to pump water directly into the system," he concluded.