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Public health fears as 50,000 without running water

Indepenent.ie

By RALPH RIEGEL
Sunday November 22 2009

CORK was last night facing a public health crisis.

Flood damage to the strategic Lee Fields station which pumps drinking water to tens of thousands of homes is worse than feared. Key pumping gear that was under 20ft of murky flood waters has been severely damaged.

Full repairs are now unlikely to begin until Wednesday. Engineers are now trying to assess the scale of any water contamination from the floods.

Over 50,000 people in Cork city -- 40 per cent of the population -- are now dependent on water tanker supplies while boil-water notices are also in place in various parts of west Cork.

Cork City Council acknowledged yesterday that it was now unlikely running water of any kind could be restored to 18,000 homes for at least a week.

Cork City Manager Joe Gavin said the scale of flood damage to strategic water systems was worse than the authority had feared. Families are now being urged to travel to relatives' or friends' homes for any washing and sanitation purposes.

"We just cannot commit to any repair timescale because we are just at this stage dismantling the machinery and

our engineers are checking it out to see what needs to be done to get it back into working order," Mr Gavin told the Sunday Independent.

"We don't see, in the current situation, any return to normality before the end of next week, unfortunately."

In the interim, the council is operating five major water tanker centres -- and extra tankers are being sourced from around Ireland should they be required.

The Civil Defence, Red Cross and other agencies are on standby to assist if needed.

Heavy rainfall yesterday morning has also led to further flood fears.

The ESB was last night carefully monitoring water levels at the Inniscarra dam amid concerns the latest heavy rainfall could force a second major release of water into the River Lee.

Fine Gael's environment spokesman Phil Hogan last night called for Environment Minister John Gormley to sanction an independent inquiry into the precise cause of the Cork flooding -- and whether it was likely to recur.

Last night some city council officials described the flood as a "once-in-800-year event".

However, some traders have blamed the timing of the Inniscarra dam release -- which coincided with a high tide in Cork city -- for aggravating the flooding. They have also criticised the scale of flood warnings that were issued.

Some areas of the city's western suburbs suffered their worst flooding in 50 years, with the Mercy University Hospital cut off, a quay wall torn down at Grenville Place, the Kingsley Hotel evacuated and the busy North Main Street shopping area under more than 3ft of flood waters.

The ESB, for its part, warned that the release of 535 tonnes of water each second was absolutely essential -- and stressed that but for the Inniscarra dam, Cork's flooding would have been a lot worse.

Last night, Mr Gormley said the Government's priority was to ensure flood-hit families nationwide received shelter and access to clean water.

Bandon resident Veronica Neville said while the town was braced for further flooding within the next 24 hours, the big worry was what happened over the coming weeks.

"That is the big worry -- what could happen again in two or three weeks' time. The only thing is that the community has rallied around to an incredible degree. People have been fantastic and I am very proud today to say I am from Bandon," she said.

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