Parasite Contamination shuts down Norway water supply
Pastor Dale Morgan
Parasite Contamination shuts down Norway water supply*
Uncertainty about the gravity of Oslo's contaminated water supply
persists, but authorities insist that residents keep boiling tap water
until the source of the parasite outbreak is found.
Truls Krogh, head of water hygiene at the Norwegian Institute of Public
Health (NIPH) said that water should be boiled until the source of
Giardia and cryptosporidium parasites are found, and that this could
take weeks.
This applies to about 457,000 Oslo residents served by the Oset water
treatment plant.
"It will probably take a few weeks to determine if the situation is
serious or not, then it will take another few weeks to clear up, if the
situation is serious," Krogh said.
Krogh said that even though the parasite level is not likely to be
anywhere near the outbreak in Bergen in 2004 that sickened at least
6,000 residents, authorities have decided to urge boiling.
Krogh has long had the condition of the capital's water pipes as a
concern. The network from before 1970 is so poor that contaminated water
leaks into the potable supply in several places, he told Aftenposten in
January this year.
From early 2008 a new purification system at the Oset plant, which
treats water from Lake Maridal and services about 80 percent of Oslo,
should provide full protection against the types of parasite now found
in recent samples.
According to an NIPH survey, 1.5 million Norwegians get water that can
contain such parasites and 60 percent of Norway's waterworks do not meet
purification standards.
Bergen's medical director for contagion protection, Øystein Søbstad
advises the boiling of water for three minutes, and said that
dishwashers are not a risk.
"The water in dishwashers usually is around 55-60C, which is not enough
by itself, but modern detergents kill off parasites," Søbstad told
newspaper Dagbladet's web site.