Just when you thought it was safe to drink the water...

...it isn't. Surprise surprise, Galway City Council have announced that they won't have a safe supply by next Friday after all. Not content with deliberately neglecting Galway's water supply for ten years (to be fair the County Council are equally complicit in that one) we now are guaranteed a third world water supply at the peak of the tourist season.
Prospective tourists should be assured that most hotels and restaurants have their own filtration systems in place and provide safe clean water. The people of Galway, however, will have to make do with continuing to buy water.

New Double Vision

I've published Charlie's latest article over on Double Vision. Check it out for a slice of Galway life!

Galway Water Crisis Update

Via Galway Water Crisis:

PETITION

The petition, which now has over 2,000 signatures, is now available at several places in Galway to sign. They are as follows:-


Kenny's Gallery,High St


Charlie Byrne's Bookshop,Middle St


Dillon's Jewellers,Cross St


Pat O'Connor's Gallery, The Bridge Mills


I-Supply, Sea Road


Ernie's Fruit and Veg shop, Sea Rd


Back to Music, Abbeygate St Lr


If any other business is interested in having a petition please let us know. We will pop in and see you.
Thanks to all the businesses above for helping us. We really appreciate it.

City Council to recycle water bottles for free.

From Galway Water Crisis:

FREE RECYCLING OF WATER BOTTLES WILL BE AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY. Just put them in clear plastic bags and put them out at your normal day/time. This was announced at the 23 April meeting of the City Council in a letter to the councillors from the manager.
Here is an excerpt of the city manager’s letter:
This issue of disposing of the bottles is primarily bulk and not weight. The best advice is to squash the bottles after removing the caps. This allows a reduction in bulk in the green bin and also allows the refuse freighter to compact the bottles more efficiently.
The following measures are being put into place:
(i) Bottles which are put in clear bags will be collected with green bins as per normal collection dates. It is important that water bottles are not mixed up with other waste to facilitate recycling. Free clear bags will be made available from the Environment Department, City Hall, on request.
(ii) A container will be available in Sandy Road Depot from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Saturday to facilitate this collection of plastic bottles.

Also let me give a plug to the Galway Wants Water forum, which has been set up to give Galwegians a voice in the current crisis.

Beleagured Galway Mayor gets even more beleaguered...

...or is about to! Mayor of Galway Niall O'Brolchain gets a caricature makeover at the Mayor's Youth Conference today.

Photo courtesy of Aengus McMahon.

Feeling thirsty?

Galway Water Crisis Protest

Following on from my last post, The Looking Glass has asked me to post on a protest that's happening over the water fiasco:

"Protest going ahead Monday 23 April. Assemble at City Hall, College road from 6pm. Please text people about this and ask them to pass it on. Also can you copy and paste this and post it as a bulletin yourselves. Its crucial we get large numbers of people at this protest. Thanks"

See you there and bring your own water!

Galway Water Crisis

My take on the Galway water crisis. And when global warming kicks in we'll have plenty of sand to bury our heads in.

And on a related note some Galway citizens are taking a proactive role in questioning exactly what's being done about the current crisis:

Small turn-out but I believe it was an ad-hoc meeting and the questions asked are very valid. Personally I think this is going to hurt our tourist season badly. I hope to be wrong on that. If you are a potential traveller to Galway reading this, you should know that an alternative water supply will be in place soon, and the only inconvenience to you is having to brush your teeth with bottled or boiled water.
God, it's like Jaws, only microscopic!