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Galway residents to mount protest over water crisis
Monday, 10 November 2008
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Residents in Galway are to mount a protest at City Hall later today to highlight their anger over the handling of the city's lead contamination crisis.
The contamination was discovered in the water supply for around 250 houses in the Old Mervue area seven weeks ago.
The City Council says it could take up to five years to replace the pipes.
Residents are demanding that the council provide them with water filters in the intervening period.
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If the council dont think it is urgent to remove the lead from the water then the some of the leaded water should be bottled and the councellors should be supplied with only that to drink in their meetings for 5 years. Then you might see faster action
Posted by Trus Heere | 10.11.08, 14:03 GMT
Our water supply in Northern Ireland is disinfected by chlorine, to which most of us have built up a 'herd' resistance. In my deposition to the Boards (2000) in respect to the possible imposition of Fluoride, I pointed out that in dosing with fluoride (hydrofluosilic acid) meant that protective coatings on existing lead piping built up over the years would be removed thus bringing exposed lead into the supply. Presumably Galway people are suffering from a double whammy, in that inadequate filter media which did not remove cryptosporidium was compensated for by ferrous aluminium sulphate gel to excess. The silence of the Irish EPA is quite appalling. It is peculiar that the presence of lead pipework is not being responded to currently, but the problem is used as an excuse for the replacement heavy mains.
Posted by Malachy McAnespie | 10.11.08, 12:46 GMT