Tainted tap water may be linked to child's illness

The Western Health Board has confirmed it is investigating a case of serious gastroenteritis which "may" be linked to the bacteriological contamination of the water supply in Knock, Co Mayo, just over a week ago.

It is understood the case involves a child who was taken to hospital after inadvertently drinking the tap water.

Warning notices had been placed by Mayo County Council after the health board alerted it to the presence of bacteriological contamination on August 17th. Repeat samples taken on August 23rd were clear, the health board says.

It is understood the Environmental Protection Agency was informed of the contamination, but an agency spokeswoman told this newspaper it was a matter for the county council.

As far as a Mayo-based vet, Mr Michael Malone, is concerned, enough is enough. He has personal knowledge of the particular case, and says the child has been on a drip in hospital all week. He says it once again points the finger to official complacency over the state of drinking water supplies in the county.

As this column reported earlier this month, the EPA has already downgraded the status of Lough Mask, the main water supply source for much of Co Mayo.

It identified over-enrichment by increasing levels of phosphate as the main cause. Formerly classified as oligothrophic (pristine), both Mask and the Corrib are now classified as mesothrophic - even though sewage treatment plants have been upgraded at Tuam, Co Galway, and Ballinrobe, Co Mayo.

The EPA has also been analysing samples from Carrowmore lake in north Mayo, where tests carried out by the North Western Regional Fisheries Board have indicated it is suffering from enrichment and a non-toxic algae.

The board believes bottom sediments enriched by a large discharge of nutrients into the lake during flooding in 1997, compounded by the shallow level, are the main cause of the problem. The local angling club has asked the board, in co-operation with Mayo County Council, to have the level of the lake raised gradually. The lake normally attracts thousands of flyfishermen to the village of Bangor, but since early July, the bloom referred to by the fisheries board has terminated the fly-fishing for salmon and sea trout and has tainted local tap water.

Mr Malone, who has a home in Kilkeerin, Ballinrobe, but works as a vet in London, blames what he regards as an "environmental collapse" in the county on lack of political leadership.