This article is from page 2 of the 2005-10-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
WercNMmO elem E-NRortE boil notice to Ennis householders would be lifted in the next couple of days.
Mr Tiernan said that tests received by the council on Monday were clear.
He said that the on-going caution to pre-school children and those vulnerable to infection was there because the town’s lack a fully-fledged treatment plant.
Last Friday, the Health Service Execu- tive (HSE) deemed Ennis’s water unfit for human consumption for the third time in four months. Some 30,000 residents in the greater Ennis area are affected.
Tests on Friday showed a bacterial contamination of the supply. It was as
a result of a system malfunction at the town’s treatment plant, which led to con- taminated water being pumped to homes in Ennis and surrounding villages.
Mr Tiernan said yesterday: “The tem- porary glitch in the system was an unfor- tunate and freak occurrence and could’ve happened anywhere, but Murphy’s Law PTS OOM RUUD NBEO Roan 1 mae
Mr Tiernan said that the system mal- functioned for a “number of hours over- night” and once detected was corrected.
However, Ennis Town Mayor, Cllr Frankie Neylon yesterday called on the Minister for the Environment, Dick Ro- che and County Manager, Alec Fleming to intervene, by providing tankers or bot- tled water to the community.
“Through EU Drinking Water Regula- tions 2000, the Minister for the Environ- ment is required to supply clean drink- ing water and as a result should provide
tankers and bottled water.
“Families can’t afford to be spending €40 per week on bottled water over the next two years until the new plant is in place.”
Chief executive of Ennis Chamber of Commerce, Rita McInerney said: “This is an extraordinary situation and cen- tral Government should step in to fund an interim solution as the Town Council doesn’t have the funds.”
Councillor Brian Meaney (GP), who brought 40 litres of the Ennis water sup- ply to the gates of Leinster House on Wednesday for TDs to sample, said:
“We have forgotten what it is like to have a safe water supply in Ennis where anywhere else in Ireland it would be tak- en for granted. The people of Ennis can’t wait two more years .. . this situation has come about as a result of not planning for the future.”