Group water schemes show contamination, Unacceptable says EPA
The Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, has said he wants the issue of water contamination off the agenda during his term as minister and he added that he was a long way towards achieving that.
He was reacting to the revelation that more than a quarter of group water schemes in Ireland continue to be contaminated by human or animal excrement.
The Environmental Protection Agency says while this figure amounts to an improvement on last year, faecal contamination is 'unacceptable'.
The Agency found that samples from public water supplies showed less than 3% contained faecal contamination, however one quarter of group water scheme samples had indications of human or animal waste.
Group water schemes in certain counties were far above this average. In Leitrim 77% of samples showed faecal contamination, in West Cork the figure was 50% and in Mayo it was 45%.
The EPA has also expressed concern that some public water supplies are consistently in breach of aluminium and nitrate levels.
It is recommending that monthly monitoring results be made available to the public.
Labour's Environment spokesman, Eamon Gilmore, said there was 'no prospect' of Ireland achieving compliance with the EU Directive on drinking water by January of next year.
Mr Gilmore said Ireland was 'facing heavy fines for every single day that our water is contaminated' after that date.
This, he said, was an appalling indictment of the Government's record that at the heart of rural Ireland - water is not safe to drink.
