Galway boils over official bonuses
Tuesday July 10 2007
UP to 70,000 people living in Galway city and surrounding villages are going to have to continue to boil water indefinitely, it emerged last night.
Four months after the health authorities introduced the measure as a precaution against the cryptosporidium bug in tap water, neither the local authorities nor the Health Service Executive can say when the city will again have clean water.
Meanwhile, six managers at the city council have applied for and been awarded performance-related bonuses of almost €10,000 each.
The money was paid under a bonus scheme for city and county managers and their directors of services, which is designed to reward exceptional performance.
However, at a press briefing in Galway city yesterday, nobody on the response team handling the crisis, which includes city council officials and HSE officers, could say when the "water boil" notice for the city would be lifted.
But 20,000 people living in other parts of the county which have been affected by the presence of the cryptosporidium bug - it cause severe and long-lasting diarrhoea - should be able to drink their tap water immediately, according to the response team.
To date, about 238 laboratory-diagnosed cases have been confirmed. But between five and 10 times this number are believed to have actually contracted the bug.
About 50 people had to be hospitalised, so severe were their symptoms.
Dr Diarmuid O'Donovan, of the Health Service Executive west, said that less than 10 of these cases involved children who became seriously ill.
Dr O'Donovan stressed that the response team would continue to monitor any incidences of people with low immunity who could be exposed to chronic illness as a result of picking up the parasite in the city's water.
Galway Co Council senior engineer Roddy Killeen said the clock would "now start ticking" towards a clear supply for the city when the old city waterworks at Terryland would be commissioned.
Water is now being brought into the city from the Luimnagh works in Co Galway, where complex engineering works have been carried out.
But while areas of the county served by Luimnagh can now use the water, further tests will have to be carried out on the city supply before the precautionary notice to householders and businesses can be lifted.
Health officials have to be satisfied that tests covering two cycles of the parasite are clear before they can sanction the removal of the boil-water measure.
- Brian McDonald
