DANGEROUS LEVELS of lead in Galway city's water supply have caused the Health Service Executive (HSE) to arrange for the health screening of some residents. Coming on top of a major outbreak of cryptosporidium last year, the situation points to official complacency and an absence of accountability. All the more so when even a substitute water tap, installed as an emergency measure, is found to be contaminated with lead.
This latest public health scare was predictable and avoidable. Officials knew that public water mains serving an older part of the city were made of lead and that plumbing inside homes was also lead-based. The combination of both systems caused lead levels to exceed safe limits. Four years ago, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) formally advised Galway city officials that one-quarter of the samples it had provided were "problematic", due to lead pipework. This year, with new powers, the EPA called in the HSE to ensure that health and safety regulations were enforced.
Lead poisoning can be particularly dangerous for pregnant women and for young children. Cities around the world have been ripping up old piping and replacing it since the risk was first established. That has been happening in Ireland since the 1970s, with the result that the vast majority of public water supplies meet established safety standards. In Galway, most of the old piping was replaced. But not all of it. Other areas of the country are similarly affected.
There is a concern that some local authorities have attempted to disguise the extent of the problem. In its report on drinking water quality last year, the EPA noted that many of the samples tested by local authorities had been fully flushed through pipes before investigation, thereby reducing the lead content in the water. The only sure way of dealing with the problem, local authorities were advised, involved removal of all lead pipes from the distribution system. Householders have duties too. Pipes leading from the public mains are the responsibility of homeowners. In old, unrefurbished houses, these will be lead-based and should be replaced.
Given responsibility for sampling and testing water quality while, at the same time, behaving as a major polluter because of inadequate sewage treatment, local authority officials are conflicted. One in five public water supplies is operating under conditions of high risk. And the EPA has urged the publication of all local authority sampling data involving water quality and sewage treatment works. What have they to hide?