CORK, IRELAND — More than 50,000 residents here, who have been struggling with flood conditions and without running water since November 20, may not have their tap water restored for another full week, local and international news agencies recently have reported.

Cork, along with other cities in southwest and midwest Ireland and the Lake District in England, have been inundated with heavy rains that have caused historic flood conditions. In Cork, the Republic of Ireland’s second city, officials have referred to the flooding as the worst the country has experienced in nearly a millennium. Ireland Minister for the Environment John Gormley, who this week was touring the hardest hit parts of the country, is quoted in a November 23 BBC News article as saying: “We are talking about events which have been described as once-in-800-years.”

Local media initially reported that the Cork water treatment plant was shut down as a precautionary measure to protect pumps and the water system, as WaterTech Online® reported. Later it was determined that the plant had been flooded and that vital equipment was under 7 meters (about 23 feet) of flood water.

City manager Joe Gavin said in a November 21 IrelandOn-Line report: It is “a very serious crisis.”

Local businesses, including restaurants and other food businesses, also have been impacted by the flood conditions, and those that have been able to reopen are doing so under national health department rules. The rules require that food businesses wishing to operate during the water treatment plant’s shutdown have a reliable potable water supply from either bottled water or by boiling water supplied by the municipality in tankers, IrelandOn-Line reported November 24.

Police and armed forces have been delivering water to locations throughout the city and directly to the sick and elderly. Local officials are preaching conservation.

The city of Cork also is struggling with maintaining sanitation, and the Cork City Council on November 23 warned of a sanitation crisis with 18,000 homes unable to flush toilets or operate hygiene facilities, according to a November 24 Independent report.

In England’s Lake District, the flooding claimed the lives of at least three, and searches for missing individuals continued. According to a November 23 story in The New York Times, among those dead are an environmental contractor, a canoeist and a police constable.

Officials there are estimating months of cleanup, and England’s Environmental Secretary Hilary Benn said that the “relentless rains” were expected to continue.

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