Galway city and county may face water rationing as the public health alert over water contamination approaches its second month.
City manager Joe McGrath has said in a newsletter to residents of the city that water conservation measures will be required to "assure continuity of supply over the busy summer period".
Rationing is being considered among a "series of conservation measures", city council director of services Ciarán Hayes confirmed yesterday.
He added that demand on public supplies had not dropped significantly since the alert over the cryptosporidium parasite was issued to some 90,000 residents in the city and county on March 15th.
This sustained demand may be due to the current dry weather spell, and city officials have no figures as yet for the sale of subsidised bottled water. More than 100 people who attended a march on the issue in Galway city at the weekend called for free supplies to all residents.
City officials have said that they are working with organisations involved with vulnerable groups such as the elderly to provide clean, safe water. Mr Hayes said the council was examining measures including reducing pressure at night and leak eradication to reduce dependence on the old Terryland waterworks, which supplies some 14,000 cubic metres of water a day.
Replacement supplies are being taken in from the Tuam regional system via the water treatment plant at Luimnagh in the north of the county, at a rate of 2,000 cubic metres a day, and it is hoped to have this additional supply up to 17,000 cubic metres by June 15th.
This would enable the old Terryland works, where cryptosporidium contamination was detected in late March, to be taken out of commission.
Galway County Council hopes to introduce coagulation and flocculation to provide "further protection" against cryptosporidium infiltration at Luimnagh by June 7th.
The number of laboratory-confirmed cases of the gastro-intestinal illness associated with the parasite was 214 up to the middle of last week, and HSE West is concerned that the weekly total is not dropping. Some 75 per cent of these cases have been infected by cryptosporidium hominis, which is associated with human sewage, and 40 people have been admitted to hospital.
The majority of cases referred to doctors involved children under 10 years of age, and three were referred to specialist children's hospitals due to the serious nature of their condition. HSE West believes that the total number affected in the community could be as high as 2,000.
A new grouping called the Free Safe Water group organised Saturday's demonstration. "We have an obscene situation where many families and individuals are suffering serious financial difficulties because they are forced to buy clean water due to the incompetence of the Irish Government and city bureaucrats," Dette McLoughlin of the group said.
"Despite the fact that there is an election going on, only independent candidate Catherine Connolly and the Labour Party's Michael D. Higgins have supported the campaign for free safe water for the people of Galway," she said.
Also speaking at Saturday's demonstration which marched from Spanish Arch to Eyre Square were anglers' representative John Gibbons and Maeve Kelly of the Galway Water Crisis group which has set up an internet link on www.myspace.com.
It wants an independent group of specialists to tackle the source of Galway's water problems - still not specifically identified.