Galway residents will hold a demonstration in the city tomorrow to demand that the Government establish an emergency fund to supply them with clean water, amid the continuing crisis over contamination of the supply.
A group calling itself Galway for Free Safe Water said its move was in response to a "slow and inadequate way the crisis has been dealt with".
In a statement, the group said it was making an "immediate, moderate and sensible demand for free clean water to be delivered to the household of Galway affected by contamination".
Spokeswoman Maggie Heneghan said the scheme whereby residents can avail of a "two-for-one" offer on bottled water in Galway was still in place. However, she said this was no longer an adequate measure to deal with the crisis.
"We are still operating under the 'boil' notice where water has to be boiled before it is used. The logistics of buying water and getting it home for elderly people and those with children are very difficult."
Ms Heneghan told ireland.comshe did not want to be "scaremongering" but that the cryptosporidium contamination was "a crisis in our city".
She said she knew a number of people who had suffered from recurring stomach bugs and in some cases they had been told it was the "winter vomiting bug".
"We don't think people should have to pay for water. There should be an emergency central fund from the national Government to fund the delivery of free, safe water to every household."
Ms Heneghan said her grouping of approximately 21 people was co-operating with a number of other residents' groups. The alliance will assemble at Spanish Arch tomorrow, Saturday, at 2pm.
The contamination by the cryptosporidium parasite has caused over 200 confirmed cases of illness in Galway in recent weeks, most of which were in children under the age of 10. Some 15 cases were confirmed by laboratory testing last week alone.
The bug causes acute stomach illness and is a microscopic spore found in faeces of humans or animals. It can be transmitted through water or though objects that are contaminated and then touched by human hands.
The "boil water" notice was issued in Galway on March 15 thin response to an unusual increase in the number of cases of illness from cryptosporidium. Boiling water before cooking or drinking it kills the bug.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche held emergency meetings with officials from the Galway local authorities last month after he described the situation as "extremely unsatisfactory".
The Minister said "mistakes" had been made by local authority management and that "there certainly wasn't the degree of urgency that should have been put into this issue".
He said, however, he did not want to "get into the blame game" and that resources would solve the problem.
It emerged in recent weeks that funding allocated by central government to Galway City Council five years ago for the upgrade of the Terryland water treatment plant had not been drawn down by the authority.