“Do Not Consume” Water Notice Issued For West Tipperary Border

Yesterday, May 9th 2020, Irish Water (Uisce Éireann) issued a “Do not consume notice” to several hundred customers, latter supplied by the Carrigmore Water Scheme; after elevated nitrate levels were discovered affecting homes on the Limerick/Tipperary border.

High levels of nitrate in ground water usually indicates an overuse of chemical fertilizers, or improper disposal of human or animal waste. Nitrate, however, can occur naturally in surface and groundwater, but at a level that does not generally cause health problems.

So what caused this problem? Irish Water refuses to comment.

A similar notice, from Irish Water, was issued with regard to Templetuohy village, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, in late January of 2020. Some 3.5 months later this notice appears to remain in place.

Currently it takes, on average, 27 minutes to make phone contact with staff in Irish Water, before being told “We don’t know”. Irish Water refuses to interpret; convey or chastise, publicly or privately, those responsible for “Dirty Farming Practises” mostly causing such high levels of nitrate in our drinking water.

We do understand bottled water has been delivered to those people impacted by the problem, but possibly only to those families with infants, as is usual according to an Irish Water official with whom we spoke.

Irish Water state it is O.K. to wash our bodies, clothing and cooking utensils in water contaminated by human and animal defecation.

At a time when HSE guidance on handwashing is considered totally essential; Irish Water stated yesterday that it was imperative that drinking water from this named water scheme supply is not consumed by infants. They also stated that same water could continue to be used for personal hygiene, flushing of toilets, for laundry and the washing of household utensils.

Note: Boiling such water in this case does not make the slightest difference in terms of reducing nitrate levels and therefore any affected water boiled, will continues to remain unsuitable for human consumption.

Could this be yet another pandemic waiting to destroy our very existence?

Remember our food sources do not have access to bottled water.