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Sat 04 Apr 2007Muddying the watersNobody is being held to account for the shambles that led to life-threatening drinking water being supplied to the people of Galway. That might be understandable if this outbreak of cryptosporidiosis was exceptional. But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been warning local authorities about the dangers posed to public health by this sewage/slurry-based parasite for years. Citizens have been put at risk in this latest outbreak. More than 200 became seriously ill. But our unaccountable, inefficient and irresponsible system of local government has reacted by engaging in blame transference.Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, was at the forefront in talking about "catastrophic management errors" at local level. Money had been available for a new treatment plant in Galway city, he said, while ignoring the fact that it was polluted water from Galway County area that had caused the outbreak. The parasite could have come from a number of inadequate local authority sewage works; from neglected septic tanks; from farmyard slurry or from all three sources. That uncertainty reflects a lack of proper environmental planning and strict enforcement at all levels.