Irish Water did not act on E.coli illness reports

IRISH Water apologised after an investigation found it failed to act on complaints from customers that children were being hospitalised with E. coli, a watchdog has reported.

The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) found Irish Water also failed to inform customers promptly about serious health risks.

Two plants in Louth and Cavan, serving a combined total of over 52,000 people, were the subject of the probe by the CRU which has strongly criticised Irish Water for failing to act as they should have.

A litany of High Court cases taken by the children and families affected, suing for damages, have now been initiated.

In Gorey, inadequately disinfected water entering the public water supply led to 46 people falling ill last autumn, with one hospitalised, but customers did not have their concerns logged.

The incident has triggered at least a dozen legal actions against Irish Water and Wexford County Council, from people made sick by the contaminated water – with one of the claims taken on behalf of a five-year-old child.

In Cavanhill, Co. Louth, last year, Irish Water failed to report high levels of manganese in the water from the plant that serves the Dundalk area – despite 337 complaints from the public.

In both investigations, the CRU found Irish Water did not accurately log contacts as complaints.

In one example from the Gorey area, a customer contacted Irish Water to report that her child had been ill for the past six days and her tap water had a green tinge.

She asked for something to be done as soon as possible.

This was not classed as a complaint and the customer did not receive a response until three days later, after she contacted Irish Water via social media.

Another customer contacted the company three times before a complaint was logged. On the third call, the customer said her neighbour’s children had tested positive for E. coli and she thought they caught it from the water.

The customer stated that her own children were also feeling unwell. It was only when she called for a fourth time, one month after her initial contact, Irish Water raised a complaint for her.

In another example, a contact was received from a Government minister’s office on behalf of a parent whose son was admitted to hospital, where he tested positive

for E. coli. The CRU also found Irish Water did not follow up with some customers who contacted it in relation to discoloured water and were not informed of any reason for the issue.

Irish Water has now apologised and pledged to make changes.

It said: ‘The protection of public health is a priority and 99.7% of the water we produce meets or exceeds the required standards and is safe to drink.

‘In the past year since these incidents occurred, we have made significant progress in developing enhanced systems to monitor drinking water treatment plant performance and improve incident management.’

Pledged to make changes