Search for water bug 'narrows'

Many people have resorted to buying bottled water

The head of the water service in Northern Ireland has said his officials are closer to locating the source of the bug which has caused illness on the outskirts of Belfast.

As more cases of cryptosporidium related illnesses were reported over the weekend, the advice to about 100,000 people to boil their water in the Dunmurry, Poleglass and Lisburn areas as a precaution against the bug remained in place.

So far 76 people have been identified as suffering from symptoms of the bug. These include chronic vomiting and diarrhoea and can be dangerous to vulnerable groups such as the elderly, the very young and those who are already seriously ill.

Water Service chief executive Robert Martin said he believed the contamination may have occurred in a conduit which supplies the Poleglass reservoir.

Robert Martin: Narrowed source down

"We are satisfied that the water going into the Lagmore conduit is pure and wholesome.

"We know that the process we put the water through does remove the cryptosporidium traces from the water supply.

"Somewhere along the line of that conduit, which is a very elderly conduit, 110 years old, some contamination may have occurred.

"We haven't been able to specifically identify that contamination but we have narrowed it down to a very short section of the conduit."

He said that a new three-mile section of conduit which had been commissioned earlier in the summer would replace the section believed to be contaminated.

This work would take a fortnight but, in the meantime, compartments in the Poleglass were being flushed out and replaced with "cleansed" water.

He said this process would be completed early on Tuesday morning.

Householders in Lisburn, County Antrim, received the warning on Friday morning, just a day after people on the periphery of Belfast were given similar instructions from the Eastern Health and Social Services Board.

What is cryptosporidium?

It is a parasite found in humans and animals which can be transmitted by water supplies. It causes illness that can last several weeks, and is potentially fatal in the elderly, very young and those in poor health

Criticism of the Water Service's handling of the outbreak was rejected by the regional development minister Gregory Campbell.

He said: "There has to be and there will be immediate action to try and remedy it."

'Precautionary' measure

But he said that the heart of the problem lay in decades of underfunding of the water service infrastructure which he said needed £3bn invested over the next 20 years.

The Eastern Health Board said that people were being advised to boil water "purely as a precautionary measure".

Many people have resorted to buying bottled water, and as the parasite particularly puts older people at risk, free supplies are being delivered to local nursing homes.

Residents are being advised to boil tap water for brushing their teeth.

People uncertain whether they are in the affected area should contact Customer Services. The telephone number is 0845 7440088.

The board has said notices will be issued when it is considered the water can be consumed safely without being boiled.