Ennis householders told to boil water

The discovery of E.coli in the Ennis public water supply yesterday forced local councils to warn thousands of householders not to drink the town's water without first boiling it.

The Health Service Executive (HSE), along with Clare County Council and Ennis Town Council, issued the "boil notice".

In response, the chairman of Ennis Chamber of Commerce said there was no way the people of Ennis could have confidence in the local water supply.

Michael Evans made his comment yesterday after over 30,000 residents in Ennis and the surrounding villages of Clarecastle, Crusheen and Barefield were advised not to drink the water without boiling it first, and also to boil water for food preparation, brushing of teeth and making ice.

The supply - some three million gallons of water daily - has been beset by problems since June 2005, when cryptosporidium was found in it. Since then there have been four more boil notices.

The problems forced Clare County Council to install a €2 million temporary treatment plant for Ennis ahead of the commissioning of a €9 million plant in 12 months.

Until the permanent treatment plant becomes operational, a precautionary boil notice will remain in place for the infirm and infants.

Mr Evans said yesterday: "Almost 40,000 people are continuously in danger by the fact that they do not have a supply of potable water."

He admitted that he no longer drank water from the public supply.

Fine Gael TD Joe Carey called "for subsidised bottled water to be made available in Ennis until the permanent treatment plant opens in 2009 and the public can regain confidence in the authorities to provide safe, clean water". However, Ennis town engineer Tom Tiernan said yesterday that the public water supply "is drinkable, and is as good a quality as any other supply in the country".

He said the contamination occurred as a result of a malfunction in the water supply's chlorinator.

"The problem has been rectified and the system is back to normal again. The notice issued is purely precautionary. We have had the water analysed to show that there is no further traces of E.coli in the water, but it requires a number of consecutive samples to be clear before we can lift the boil notice.

"Some people tend to be negative and that adds to the question of confidence around the water supply. There hasn't been an incident with a drop of water from the public supply in the past 12 months."

Mr Tiernan described the current boil notice as a "blip".

"The problem was short-lived, and we would be hoping to lift the boil notice in the next number of days."