Bathers and open-water swimmers are urged to check swimming areas which are at risk of contamination due to recent heavy rainfall.
A list of 36 beaches with “restrictions” has been published on the beaches.ie website, which also lists areas which have good water quality.
The 36 beaches and swimming areas are in Clare, Kerry, Galway, Leitrim (Keeldra Lake), Donegal, Dublin, Westmeath, Meath, Wicklow.
The website run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shares the latest information on more than 200 bathing waters sampled during the bathing water season.
Grattan beach in Galway city, one of 36 tested swimming areas affected by heavy rainfall run off and contamination
The EPA advises against swimming for 48 hours after heavy rain, as it carries an added risk of pollution from surface runoff.
Heavy rain can wash pollution into rivers, lakes, and our seas and, in some instances overwhelm sewage systems giving rise to the operation of storm overflows. The impacts of these events are generally very short-lived, lasting typically one or two days, it says.
In Britain, at least 57 people are reported to have been hit by sickness and diarrhoea after competing in sea swimming events at the recent World Triathlon championship series in Sunderland.
As The Guardian reports, about 2,000 people took part in the events in late July, which included a swim off Sunderland’s blue flag Roker beach.
An Environment Agency sampling at Roker Beach on Wednesday, 26 July, three days before the event, showed 3,900 E Coli colonies per 100ml, more than 39 times higher than typical readings the previous month. E coli is a bacterial infection that can cause stomach pain and bloody diarrhoea.
But British Triathlon, the governing body for triathlons in Great Britain, said the agency’s sampling results were not published until after the weekend’s events and were outside the body of the water where its competitions took place. It said its own testing results passed the required standards for the event.
The British Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it would be testing samples from those who were ill to establish the cause of the illness and any common pathogens.
Read The Guardian here
