Águas do Alto Minho and Águas do Norte guaranteed this Wednesday The quality of water for human consumption in the public system. in the parishes of Vila Praia de Âncora, Moledo and Vilarelho, in Caminha, affected by legionella.
Regarding the water supply system for human consumption and the quality of the water distributed, both Águas do Alto Minho, responsible for the lower system (distribution networks) and Águas do Norte, managing entity of the upper system (capture, treatment and reservoirs) “We have implemented rigorous water quality monitoring and control systems in the components that make up the water supply system up to the entrance of the customer building networks,” the companies say in a statement.
The public companies add that “multiple analyzes of various water quality parameters are carried out, using accredited external laboratories, parameters that include periodic research and quantification of bacteria of the legionella genus.”
(…) There are no positive records of legionella agents in the results historyboth the most recent, and in the remainder of 2023. These results, together with the rest of the monitored parameters, and the careful treatment and disinfection guarantee the quality and safety of the water distributed for human consumption and other domestic uses,” they reinforce.
The Águas do Alto Minho company states that, as the entity that manages the water supply system in Baixa, which serves the parishes of Vila Praia de Âncora, Moledo and Vilarelho in the municipality of Caminha, “it is monitoring, in collaboration with the health authority, the situation of occurrence of some positive cases of Legionnaires’ disease in residents of the same parishes, in order to identify the cause(s), control and mitigate it.
The Alto Miño health delegate this Wednesday recommended that older people in Vila Praia de Âncora “protect themselves” during investigations into the origin of the legionella outbreak, which has already infected eight people, rejecting reasons for alarm.
There is an outbreak in Vila Praia de Âncora. Children are not the target population of the pathology. But we recommend that older people and those with comorbidities protect themselves. Older people with comorbidities in Vila Praia de Âncora should stay at home,” said the health delegate, Luís Delgado, in a joint press conference with the mayor of Caminha.
The person in charge explained that there is a “dilution of suspicions” about the source of the infectionbut he said that the “environmental investigation” focuses on Vila Praia de Âncora, a parish in the municipality of Caminha, in the district of Viana do Castelo, where five of the patients identified as of this Wednesday reside.
Cases of legionella infection were also reported in residents of the parishes of Vilarelho (one person) and Moledo (two people), also in the municipality of Caminha.
Five patients, aged between 54 and 97 years.s, are admitted to the Viana do Castelo hospital, one of them in intensive care.
Source: Observadora
