Water Sickener

 » 52 ill, several in hospital from unsafe supply  » Consequences call over ‘abject failure’ at plants

- Pat Flanagan

Nearly a million people were forced to drink contaminated water resulting in 52 confirmed cases of illness and several hospitalisations.

Not only did Irish Water fail to issue a boil notice, it did not notify the environmental watchdog and the health authorities until ten days after the incident.

This means that more than 877,000 people were drinking unsafe water in the Dublin area for at least a day and they did not know it.

More than 50 people have been sickened – including some with bacteria linked to E coli and a number of associated hospitalizations.

One incident happened last month at a plant in Wexford which serves Gorey, while a second failure occurred at Ballymore Eustace which is the biggest treatment plant in the country serving large parts of Dublin.