14 August 2003: Pieces of toilet paper were still packed around a manhole immediately inside the main gate of Naas General Hospital this afternoon following the massive sewerage leak in the area last evening.
Gulleys along the road, footpath and grass verges were coated with excrement and used condoms.
Hospital staff who park in Lakelands estate across the road from the hospital walked over the contaminated ground to get to work this morning. Most were unaware of what they were walking over.
Michael Moriarty, secretary of Lakelands Residents Association slammed the local Council this morning for not having warning signs in place. “Since no signs are up, we feel we have to warn our residents that even if the ground looks clean in places, the risk of infection will remain for some time.” Michael is a Science teacher.
He said Naas Town engineer John McGowan had visited the scene this morning.
“I told him that the area cordoned off was insufficient as the sewerage had spread to other areas, equally as large. We feel it could have been taken more seriously by the Council. The Gardai didn’t do anything last night and the Council’s response has been insufficient.”
Later this morning, a spokesperson for the South Western Health Board said it was a ‘Kildare County Council problem’ and that the Council was dealing with it. When asked about the material inside the hospital grounds being driven over and walked over by visitors and hospital staff, the spokesperson said it was ‘being dealt with’.
Anne Gallagher who lives directly across the road from the hospital gates, phoned Kildare County Council’s emergency number at 7.20am this morning to have the Lakelands road cordoned off from traffic so it could be cleaned. “I spoke to a night sister and asked her was she aware of the sewerage problem and that staff would soon be arriving and carrying the contamination in to sick patients.”
She told KNN that there is a strong smell right throughout her house, which is directly behind the contaminated area. She said the Council is not taking its responsibility ‘seriously enough’.
Margaret Dooley was fearful that young children who play in the area could carry the contamination home on their shoes or on their hands by picking up a football. “We’re totally horrified,” she said.
Breda Kelly said the biggest surprise seemed to be that there was nobody to take charge. “I can’t believe there aren’t Health & Safety inspectors here to monitor the situation,” she said this morning.
Naas Town Council workers spent this afternoon trying to move parked cars along the access road into Lakelands and filled the vacated spaces with traffic cones.
However, Michael Moriarty said: “If they had listened to us earlier when we predicted the cars would be covering some of the effluent that had run down that road, they wouldn’t have had that bother about the cars parked there today.”
The Council workers then hosed down the spine road.
Later, Council workers used a JCB to strip the surface of the grass area in the front of Lakelands bordering the Craddockstown Road where the sewerage came up. Bucket loads were filled into a dump truck to be taken away. The grass area will be treated with lime to kill any contamination.
However, the Residents Assoc today contacted the Environmental Protection Assoc as they believe the effluent is going into the nearby lake. Michael Moriarty warns: ‘If that hosing down of the road today has gone down storm drains, well, they lead into the lake ...’
He said an environmental engineer from Kildare County Council is to contact him tomorrow to discuss the situation and their fears.
“And the EPA have told us they would be contacting the local authority and we have insisted on a written report being made available to our Residents Assoc. We feel that the EPA should be a regulatory body over local Councils.”
