Dear don1-ga
I have been unable to find any reference to this particular incident
but there are many reports throughout the world of illness caused by
water from contaminated wells. For example a recent survey in Ireland
found that in some areas 50% of wells were contaminated with faecal
bacteria.
In your question you have identified the most probable source.
Contamination of the well water from the farmyard environment. The
sources of contamination could include farmyard seepage of slurry
(mixture of solid and liquid faeces of animals), leaking septic tanks
and possibly slurry spreading. A contributing factor could have been
that well was poorly located or maintained.
The symptoms you describe are those which are caused by bacteria such
as Escherichia coli (more commonly known as E.coli) which exist in the
feaces of humans and other warm-blooded animals. Infection takes place
by drinking the well water or having touched the water, passing the
bacteria from hand to mouth. These organisms can cause diarrhea,
abdominal cramps, fever, nausea, vomiting, and other serious illness.
Other commonly found bacteria in wells are Salmonella, Campylobacter,
Cryptosporidium and Giardia.
"There are hundreds of strains of E. coli. Most are harmless and live
in the intestines of healthy humans and animals. Some, such as E. coli
O157:H7, can cause severe illness. Infection often causes severe
bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and possibly fever (these symptoms
are common to a variety of diseases, and may be caused by sources
other than contaminated drinking water). Young children, the elderly,
and the chronically ill are at greater risk for severe symptoms. In
some cases, infection can lead to kidney failure and possibly death."
Source
http://www.ccme.ca/sourcetotap/ecoli.html
"A large number of microbial pathogens are known to contaminate
groundwater (Macler and Merkle, 2000), including more than 100 viral
and several bacterial pathogens, together with protozoa such as
Cryptospiridium and Giardia. Most of these organisms are of faecal
origin and are transmissible via a faecal-oral route of exposure. The
possible microbial illnesses that result from infection vary with the
organism and very markedly in their severity. The predominant
recognised illness is generalised Acute Gastrointestinal Illness
(AGI), resulting in fever, nausea, diarrhoea, and/or vomiting (Macler
and Merkle, 2000). Most cases of AGI are of short duration and may not
be of major consequence to otherwise healthy individuals. However, for
others, such as the elderly, infants and pregnant women, this may not
hold true, and the consequences may be chronic, severe and fatal.
Other illnesses include gastro-enteritis, giardiases,
cryptospiridiosis and hepatitis. An estimated 750,000 to 5.9 million
illnesses per year result from contaminated groundwater in the US
(Macler and Merkle, 2000). Mortality from these illnesses may be
1400-9400 deaths per year. If these statistics were computed for a
population of 5 million (similar to Ireland), the numbers of illness
would be ~15,000-120,000 and deaths would be 28-190."
Source
http://www.nfgws.ie/images/pdf/Protectinggroundwater.pdf
The introduction of artesian wells solved the problem in this case as
this water is normally much purer. Artesian wells go deep into the
ground where the water has been filtered by its passage through the
rocks. Also, the water is less susceptible to contamination from the
land surface
I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder
Search strategy
wells bacteria symptoms faeces
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=wells+bacteria+symptoms+faeces
wells farmyard bacteria
://www.google.com/search?q=wells+farmyard+bacteria+&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Other sources
http://www.healthed.govt.nz/upload/PDF/1129.pdf
http://www.farmersjournal.ie/2001/0519/environment/ |
