As the authorities in Australia's largest city, Sydney, try to clean up the contaminated water-supply, the prime minister, John Howard, has described the situation as an international embarrassment.
Millions of people in Sydney -- where the Olympic Games are being held in the year two-thousand -- were told to boil tap-water before drinking it, after the authorities found traces of micro-organisms that cause nausea and diarrhoea.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
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