Coolmain Beach – Kilbrittain. Pic: Google
BANDON’S town mayor Gillian Coughlan has expressed her concern that seven beaches in Cork have been shut due to poor quality water including Coolmain Beach near Kilbrittain, due to traces of E.coli in the water.
The Fianna Fáil councillor described the situation as “hugely concerning”.
“It’s the high tourist season and the last thing we need is seven of the most popular beaches in Cork to be closed for swimming,” she said.
Cllr Coughlan called on the Minister for the Environment to take action quickly and work with Cork County Council, the HSE, An Tasice and the EPA to ascertain the causes of the presence of e-coli.
The initial results are not expected back until Wednesday, which means the beaches will be closed for almost a week at that stage.
“Detailed analysis needs to be carried out and steps must be taken to ensure this problem does not arise again.
“While the amount of rainfall has been unusually high in the past number of months, we should be prepared for the consequences of this.
“Both west and east Cork depend a lot on its tourist season, a huge part of this are the pristine beaches that attract so many visitors from both here and abroad.
“I cannot stress enough the importance of resolving this quickly. Any funding that is needed to resolve this must be provided; a co-ordinated effort is needed to ensure these attractions are back up and running sooner rather than later.”
The cause of the problem is agricultural slurry runoff due to the excessive rain this past month. Why nobody wants to say this is disturbing.
Steps must be taken? well first of all realise that this is just the begining. Now people can see what we are producing all the time and where it ends up. If a season of heavy rain and southerly winds can do this I’d hate to think what a prolonged period would do. Prolnged periods of extreme weather are becoming more common.
Yes inensive farming is a major cause ( people love milk and meat) is there some step that can be taken to change this? I doubt it. So are septic tanks and all the waste water from every house ,hotel, guest house, pub,restaurant, town and village in the county.
I’m afraid that the steps to be taken are too great for most people.