Green Party councillor Deirdre de Burca has described the contamination of water in Arklow at present as “bordering on the criminal” following numerous complaints made to her by angry Arklow residents.

De Burca reports receiving reports of a high percentage of Arklow residents suffering from nausea, stomach pains, and headaches since drinking tap-water following the flooding in the town last week. “One particular individual reported that his doctor told him that the contaminated town water supplies explained the high numbers of people visiting the clinic with similar symptoms” says de Burca. “He told me that no warning leaflets had been distributed to households although there had been some warnings issued over the local radio station”.

The Green Party says that the situation in Arklow concerning the water supply is bordering on criminal. “I have been told of people having to take time off work because of illnesses caught through consuming the local drinking water” she says. “They live in fear for what their young children are going to catch if they are exposed to the town’s drinking water. The people of Arklow have put up with problems with their water over many years now. They are very long-suffering people but enough is enough. Action must be taken by Minister Roche and by Wicklow County Council now to ensure that safe clean drinking water is urgently provided to the people of the town”.

De Burca says that the ongoing stalemate over the site for the Arklow sewage treatment plant has also had a very negative impact on water quality in the town. “Wicklow County Council has put its head in the sand over the past nine years or more and has refused to consider an alternative site to the Seabank site for a modern sewage treatment plant for Arklow” she says. “In the meantime raw sewage is floating down the Avoca River and out into Arklow Bay, but the council will not look elsewhere for a less problematic site for the treatment plant. It is also interesting to note that Wicklow County Council has not let the serious water quality problems or the lack of adequate sewage facilities put a halt to the amount of new development that has gone ahead in the town. I am calling on the Minister for the Environment and Wicklow County Council to deliver immediately on the necessary water and sewage treatment infrastructure for Arklow. The situation in the town with regard to both water and sewage is truly criminal and urgent action must be taken now by Dick Roche and the officials of Wicklow County Council”.

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Press Release by Deirdre