Potentially deadly pathogens are seeping into water supplies from septic tanks, the chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said at the weekend.
Dr Patrick Wall said there were two large outbreaks of gastroenteritis in the Republic this year, one in Mayo with 400 cases and one in Offaly with 200. These highlighted how vulnerable we were.
"A large proportion of our water supply is currently non-compliant with the legal standards and in 1999, 38 per cent of group water schemes, 33 per cent of private supplies and 8 per cent of the public supply contained coliforms," he said.
"We now have the additional problem that many septic tanks are not properly being maintained, with only a proportion being routinely emptied and few facilities to treat the sludge from those that are emptied. While agricultural effluent is a major problem, it is not the only one and we need to ensure we have a pure water supply," he said.
"The fact we are identifying coliforms in the water being supplied to commercial and domestic premises demonstrates that the avenue is wide open for the virulent E.coli 0157 and the less deadly but very sickening cryptosporidiosis to travel."