Will there be water left to drink in the next Millennium?
Fears of computer shutdown in 2000 could bring disaster, reports
Roisín de Rossa
There is a water crisis in Ireland. You wouldn't think it with all
the rain, but there it is. There is a shortage of water available in
the reservoirs in summer; half the water supply leaks away through
faulty pipes; there are deteriorating lead and asbestos pipes which
can poison the water supply; as much as 50% of water supplies are so
full of the killer bug, E-Coli, which comes from human or animal
faeces, that it cannot be safely drunk.
About one million households are connected to water supply. 700,000
of these houses are on the mains handled by local authorities, and
get their water free. The rest are in public or private group water
schemes, where most often people have to pay, and some 134,000 have
their own private supply.
Some of those on group schemes are in double jeopardy. They have paid
down the years for their water scheme and now find they must drive
off to their local spring to fill containers for themselves and their
neighbours. Their own water, which runs off mountains which have been
overstocked and overgrazed by sheep, has become contaminated by
animal waste run-off or inadequate treatment of waste in septic tanks
for sewage which has polluted ground water and natural springs.
Meanwhile Ireland is still spewing its untreated sewage into the sea,
in Dublin, and into the inland waterways, which looks bad for the
250,000 tourists who come to Ireland each year for water based
sports.
It will cost around £3 billion to put all this right, sources in
industry estimate. But responsibility to clean it all up is scattered
between local authorities, the Department of Environment and Marine,
the OPW (Office of Public Works) and the fishery boards. It makes the
£56 million allocated last year towards drawing up a rural water
strategic plan look a bit thin.
But the immediate problem is at the start of next year. The 2K
computer bug might mean that we get no water at all. Some if not all
the computers which run the sewage and water systems are expected to
knock off in 350 days. The risk inventory assessing the likelihood of
this event will not be complete until the end of February. Though
this might put a stop to water supplies, it won't stop sewage.
international consultant's audit of the city's preparedness,
recently published in Computers in Business magazine, quotes the
author of the report as saying that ``The continuation in the supply
of water must be treated as a national emergency. At this stage there
is no substantial evidence of anyone being in control of the
situation.''
`Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.' There is indeed a
crisis looming which will not be easily resolved. But it could easily
become an excuse to accede to EU pressures to bring Ireland into line
with other EU states and make everyone pay for what in the past the
majority had for free. Such a step would amount to a real fall in our
standard of living.
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