NSW: Dangerous bugs still living in Sydney's water

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2001
NSW: Dangerous bugs still living in Sydney's water

Three years after Sydney's water crisis, dangerous organisms are reportedly still being
found in the city's water supplies.

A CSIRO report outlined in today's Sydney Morning Herald warns that people's health
is in danger because water is not being monitored for dangerous metals.

The paper says catchment audit, released yesterday, rated one-fifth of Sydney's 1.6
million hectare water catchment as moderate to poor.

The audit also says farm animals can reach and defecate in 38 per cent of all the rivers
in the catchment, posing what it's called "a major risk to Sydney's drinking water supply".

It also warns that the regular detection of cryptosporidium and giardia - the organisms
at the centre of Sydney's 1998 water crisis - remain a concern.

The audit's author JOHN WILLIAMS has told the paper the organisms do not pose a threat
now, but could if the catchment is not handled in a more efficient manner.

AAP RTV hn/psm/

KEYWORD: WATER (SYDNEY)

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