AT the Roisin Dubh pub in Galway last Thursday night, Cork rockers Rulers of the Planet took to the stage. "We had a couple of glasses of that water before we came on, " the lead singer told the crowd. "It's mental stuff. I think we'll start bottling it for Cork."

It was a rare joke at a time when Galway residents are becoming increasingly angry about the handling of what is now evolving into a national crisis and a massive political row. With tourism threatened for up to six months (taking in both the Galway Arts Festival and the Galway Races), everyone has someone to blame. The city council, the county council, the mayor of Galway, the minister for community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs Eamon O Cuiv, environment minister Dick Roche, farmers and developers have all come under fire in a climate of uncertainty and misinformation that is fuelling rumours and agitation.

"Coming up to election time, nobody is going to put their hand up and say it's their fault.

I think they're afraid to be associated with it, they're too busy out canvassing for votes.

They just need to cop on, get together and take on the task, " said Fiona Conneely.

Living beside Galway's famous racecourse in Ballybrit, she and her son Kevin, 17, are awaiting results of tests for the gastro-intestinal infection caused by the parasite cryptosporidium. Her younger son, Paul, 13, has already tested positive for the illness.

"Kevin seems to have a milder dose. He seems to be functioning well enough with it, but Paul was definitely for two or three months not himself, " she said. "After Christmas he kept saying to me he didn't feel right. He had no appetite and would have diarrhoea for two or three days at a go. He hasn't been a full week in school since Christmas. I haven't been right for the past six weeks."

Conneely has not drunk the water in Ballybrit for three years "because it always tasted funny. But we probably got this from brushing our teeth with it." The HSE contacted Conneely with advice not to eat any protein as that feeds the infection. But she believes that the council has not acted quickly enough despite the fact that many people have been ill for two or three months.

"If they came out earlier and told us to stay away from it, that it was dangerous, we would have, but they didn't, and they must have known that this was going on for a long, long time. I think most people are just disgusted. . . I think it's appalling. We're supposed to be in one of the richest countries, we're supposed to be flying, but nobody seems to be looking after the basic things.

"You expect it when you go away to poorer countries, but bloody hell, not here. . . If this was happening in Dublin, there would be uproar. But because it's the west of Ireland, they just leave it. It's a big thing, coming into the summer. What are the hotels going to do? It's not my problem if the hotel bookings are down. I'm only concerned about my family, but that's still an important issue for them. And all this over something as basic as water."

In Galway city, pubs, restaurants and hotels are this weekend considering long-term plans to provide clean water and ice to their customers.

Notices regarding the polluted drinking water dot every premises. Many pubs around the city have signs announcing 'imported ice', or that their ice is 'safe to use' to allay the doubts of cautious customers.

But bar and restaurant managers told the Sunday Tribune that they have received little information about how to deal with the pollution and have not been told how long the ban on using tap water will be in effect, or what plans they should put in place. As a result, every venue has a different approach to the problem.

Many problems

Andrew Phillips, the food and beverage manager of the popular Skeffington Arms Hotel at Eyre Square, has reduced the price of bottled water in the hotel's bar, and is hoping to buy a filtration system from a private operator so the premises can use its water again. But there are still many problems to overcome.

"We're lucky to have a delivery [of ice] from our sister hotel in Athlone, the Prince of Wales, but it's half-melted by the time we get it. We're one of the major cocktail bars in town, so you need ice for that.

It's a hassle to have to courier it up every day, " said Phillips.

He shares the concerns of most of his hospitality colleagues in the city that the continuing water pollution will affect Galway as a popular tourist destination.

"It takes time to explain to tourists because they just think it's a hotel or bar's fault, they don't know that the whole county is affected. I can only assume that it will have a negative effect on tourism because if you had the choice to go to Galway now or somewhere else in the west, you'd go somewhere else."

In north Galway, Galway county council has asked one of the only private water schemes free from cryptosporidium to supply its neighbours in Headford with water until October, indicating that the main sources of water in the county will be contaminated for at least six months.

The Caherlistrane-Kilcoona General Water Scheme is now one of the only sources of clean water in the county. It was established in 1978, upgraded in October 2006 and installed with UV filters that kill the parasite, unlike the major public waterworks in the county, one of which is 50 years old. Its water is sourced from a spring, not Lough Corrib, which has been contaminated with both human and animal sewage.

Chairman of the scheme Michael Moran and scheme secretary Claire McHugh told the Sunday Tribune that the water source for the surrounding area . . . an inlet outside Headford at Keekill . . . was visibly contaminated with slurry and sewage. A new treatment plant was commissioned for Headford in February, and the pipe that was just laid for it will allow the Caherlistrane-Kilcoona source to provide water, once the older pipes are scoured, washed out and decontaminated.

"I haven't taken a glass of water in Headford for years, " McHugh told the Sunday Tribune.

In nearby Tuam, meanwhile, 3,000 bottles of holy water due to be blessed on Easter Saturday will now consist of spring water, rather than tap water.

WHAT IS CRYPTOSPORIDIUM?

CRYPTOSPORIDIUM is a microscopic parasite which lives in the intestines of humans and animals and is contracted through contact with infected faeces. It is particularly resilient as it is protected by a strong outer shell that allows it to live outside the body for long periods. This also makes it resistant to some methods of water "ltration, including exposure to chlorine, although methods like UV filtering destroy the parasite. It can survive for days and longer in any body of water.

Cryptosporidiosis is the infection which occurs two to 10 days after swallowing the parasite. Symptoms include watery diarrhoea, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain, and it is highly contagious. To kill the parasite, water must be boiled for at least one minute, and not just boiled as the HSE is advising.