We are often warned against the evils of strong drink, not so often about the dangers of foul drinking water. Yet every summer we seem to have outbreaks of pollution of water, of one sort or another. Nenagh was this year's prime example, but holidaymakers in various parts of the island will have had their suspicions.
The huge increase in the sale of bottled waters is not only due to lever marketings and the quality of the product, but to the human tendency to play safe when on unfamiliar territory. Bad water may not be lethal, but to be the cause of distressing digestive upsets, even if they are transitory, is enough. Water should be a higher priority in the health stakes (and the tourist stakes) than it seems to be. One of the latest complaints comes from Meath/Cavan. At a seminar in Kells, Clare O'Grady Walshe, Greenpeace executive director, asserted that the river Blackwater had sulphate levels ten times the EU permitted level, as well as cyanide traces.
This was reported in the Meath Chronicle of October 26th, which quoted a council spokesman as claiming that the water abstraction point at Liscarton was monitored daily, and there was no evidence of any breaches of the high standards required for supplies intended for domestic consumption. He would not comment on the allegations concerning the presence of sulphate, and cyanide.
But the Chronicle report went on to say that the Blackwater has been suffering for several years from the overloaded Virginia town sewerage system flowing into Lough Ramor. It was built in the 1930s to cater for a population of 300, and currently caters for over 1,500, with substantially increased commercial and school use. A new scheme has been wailing for over three years for a decision to allow funding from the EU Cohesion Fund to cater for 2,000 people. This is in Cavan, of course. Meanwhile, the Chronicle says the Eastern Fisheries Board has reported high clorophyll and typereuiropic conditions on Lough Ramor and on the Blackwater. The latter at Donaghpatrick Bridge, just north of the Liscarton water works. That is, 14 miles down from Ramor.
The Greenpeace director's speech was at an Afri Trocaire seminar. Just what means if Navan water contains ten times the EU levels, as the headline proclaims, not everyone could say, but you wonder must water quality be the first casually of progress? Worry about that as much as the evils of strong liquer.