contaminated water supply in galway

contaminated water supply in galway

news.bbc.co.uk

A major water crisis has left scores of people ill and tens of thousands at risk from contamination in a west of Ireland city.

Galway's water supply has been hit by an outbreak of the parasite cryptosporidium, with up to 170 people now confirmed to have been hit by a serious stomach bug as a result.

The outbreak has severely affected homes and businesses in Ireland's third-biggest city and residents have been warned that the crisis could last for months.

Doctors have warned that the parasite could be life threatening, especially to young children, the elderly and people with low immune systems.

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what is disgusting about this story is that the residents have been told not to drink the water and to only buy bottled water instead yet they are being given no financial help to do so. the local authority will not even provide free water by tanker to the the people saying that doing so could only create more problems.

it could take up to 9 months to sort the problem out and all residents and businesses are expected to pay for bottled water in that time. imagine the cost of that for a family!

the environment minister has refused to give more money to help, choosing instead to blame the local council for not using any of the money its already been paid for environmental projects on improving the 40 year old water treatment facility.

as an aside, the genome sequence of cryptosporidium parvum was mapped in 2004 and the mitochondria was found to contain no dna! strange stuff

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)