By Sara Jerome
@sarmje

Thousands of South American water consumers filed a class action lawsuit against government agencies in November after a study revealed that they had been drinking water contaminated by human feces for over two decades.

The lawsuit was filed by residents of El Pinar and Manantiales in Columbia, UPI reported. “The study by the environmental laboratory at the University of Antioquia revealed those residents had been drinking water contaminated with E. coli and human feces for more than 20 years,” the report said.

University of Antioquia professor and researcher Leidy Ávila explained the study to Radio Caracol, per UPI. Residents "are consuming water that is not potable [because the local governments and utilities company have not connected the town to a local aqueduct holding clean water],” Ávila said. "It was determined that they are consuming water with human excrement, so the pollution is very serious.”

In other contamination news, some Canadian residents recently received bad news about their drinking water, as well.

“More than 300,000 Canadians contract an acute stomach bug every year from the municipally-supplied water that comes out of their taps, some likely ending up in hospital or even dying,” the National Post reported, citing a new government study.

“The research also concludes millions of people are still getting their drinking water from substandard municipal and private systems — despite repeated safety warnings after a tainted-water disaster in Walkerton, Ont.,” the news report said.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada.

For similar stories, visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.

Image credit: "Our bathroom at the Circus Hotel, Berlin," Heather Cowper © 2000, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

http://www.wateronline.com/doc/years-of-feces-contaminated-water-leads-to-lawsuit-0001