Water disgrace! 1,400 Kilkenny residents forced to endure SIX-MONTH boil notice

By COLIN BARTLEY

A KILKENNY water supply was under a boil-water restriction for to almost six months last year.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Drinking Water Report 2018 revealed the Ballyragget public water supply had a boil notice placed on its water from early February 2018 to the end of July 2018.

The Ballyragget water supply boil-notice affected nearly 1,400 people. Due to nitrate contamination of the source of the water supply in Ballyragget, the EPA advised people not to use the water for drinking and to use bottled water instead.

Ballyragget was one of two water sources in the country where a boil-notice was applied due to nitrate contamination of the source of their water supply, the other was Kiltegan, Co Wicklow.

The EPA has moved to protect the water supply in the Ballyragget area by protecting the water source and maintaining control of operating equipment.

There were no traces of cryptosporidium, the parasite found in human and animal waste that can cause persistent diarrhoea, in any water supply in County Kilkenny.

In all there were 15 water restriction notices in place in nine counties in 2018, affecting 14,613 people, a huge increase from four water restrictions affecting 233 people during 2017.