THEY might not taste wonderful. They certainly look awful. But the waterbugs that occasionally flow out of Dublin taps at this time of year are not, in general, a threat to health, according to Dublin Corporation.
The appearance of various minute insects, larvae and freshwater fleas are soon likely to be a thing of the past, the city engineer, Mr Jim Fenwick, said yesterday.
A five year contract costing £30 million to replace the city's old water mains would rectify matters.
It would also help to eliminate leakages.
Mr Fenwick declared that the quality of water at present was excellent and complaints about the foreign organisms were not particularly prevalent.
He was replying to the Fianna Fail TD, Mr Ivor Callely, who complained of insects swimming in tapwater in a number of households located in his Dublin North Central constituency.
Water filters in Roundwood reservoir were found to need "resanding" some years ago after increasing reports of the bugs in supplies, Mr Fenwick said.
This process had been completed but a small number of cases were still occurring due to old mains systems, particularly in areas where there was a water; flow problem, such as in houses; on a cul de sac. They were usually eliminated by flushing out the mains.
"It's not a danger to health, generally speaking. But I'm not so sure people would like to be drinking them. It's not the kind of thing that people expect to find in water," he said.
On water levels, he said there were no problems at present despite long periods of dry weather.
Recent rain had topped up city; reservoirs at a critical time.
