Galway has been hit with a new drinking water contamination alert - this time in the south of the county.
Several thousand people living in the Clarinbridge, Kilcolgan and Ballindereen areas of the county have been advised to boil all drinking water, following detection of high incidences of the organism clostridium perfringens in the supply. This is a spore-forming bacterium which can cause gastrointestinal illness. It is also an indicator organism for cryptosporidium - the highly resistant parasite which contaminated Galway's city and county water system for five months this year.
The alert comes seven weeks after the boil water notice in Galway city/county was lifted, and over a month after an alert involving E.coli contamination in the Knocknacarra area of the city.
Galway County Council said the areas affected by the boil water notice as a "precautionary measure" are Clarinbridge public supply, along with group water schemes for Kilcolgan/Killeely; the Weirs, Kilcolgan; Roveagh; Slievaun/Gortard; Tonroe and Ballindereen.
PD councillor Jim Cuddy said Clarinbridge's promised sewage treatment system needs to be "fast-tracked", and said he had written to Minister for the Environment John Gormley about the issue in June.
"I am assured by the county manager that the local authority is working full-time to find the source of this contamination, but Clarinbridge has an oyster industry to protect, and it is a rapidly developing area which requires infrastructure."
Earlier this year, during debate on a development plan for Clarinbridge, the Irish Shellfish Association (ISA) warned any such move without ensuring provision of adequate waste water and sewage treatment would pollute inner Galway bay and be in direct breach of EU regulations.
