James Debono Only water from indoor fountains must be sampled at least once every six months to detect the legionella bacteria, but no sampling is required for public outdoor fountains (such as the Triton fountain in Valletta) a spokesperson for the Health Department has told MaltaToday.
“Since fountains in public spaces do not pose a risk to public health, they are not covered by the legislation and are therefore not being monitored,” the spokesperson said.
The claim that public fountains are entirely risk-free is disputed in an article published in Eurosurveillance, the European scientific journal devoted to the control of ommunicable diseases. According to the article, if water from outdoor fountains becomes warm then it may become contaminated with legionella and could represent a risk.
Although “no legionella outbreaks have yet been conclusively attributed to contaminated outdoor fountains”, the same journal revealed that an outdoor fountain located in a main square was the likely source of a legionella outbreak which infected 13 persons attending a rock concert in northern Portugal in 2000.
In June 2008 the Ross Fountain in Edinburgh was closed down after hygiene inspectors found there was a significant risk of the disease being spread from the fountain in Princes Street Gardens. They ordered that the fountain be stopped until the problem – stemming from a shortage of chlorine – was sorted.
But the Health Department justifies the distinction between outdoor and indoor fountains in Maltese law, arguing that legionnaire disease is only transmitted through vapour (aerosols), and can only be contracted in closed spaces. “While any spray produced by an indoor fountain accumulates as moisture in the room where the fountain is located, there is no such accumulation in an outdoor situation,” the spokesperson said.
The Resources Ministry, which recently set up a fountain maintenance unit, excludes the possibility of the killer bug finding its way in the new water features embellishing Pjazza San Gorg in Valletta and Pjazza Sant Anna in Sliema. According to a ministry spokesperson no such possibility exists because legionnaire’s disease only thrives in stagnant water below a temperature of 55ºC: “in our case, notwithstanding that the temperature below 55ºC exists, the water, including any water added to the fountain, is never stagnant and is continuously circulated.”
The fountain contractor was also bound to provide “crystal clear water” and sterilise the water through UV sterilisation, sand flirtation and chlorination to prevent any possibility of water related diseases.
Eurosurveillance warns that “municipal water features including decorative pools and fountains that have not been designed for bathing are often used for this purpose in hot weather, often by children.”
The article recommends that any such water features should be designed to make it difficult for children to use due to the risk of contracting infectious diseases. The article referred to a large outbreak of cryptosporidiosis at the Seneca State Park sprayground – an interactive water feature – in New York State, USA, in August 2005 which affected an estimated 3000 people. Cryptosporidium was found in two water storage tanks that supplied water to a water spray attraction.
How is legionnaire’s disease contracted? You usually get it by inhaling water vapour that contains the bacteria. Potential sources of such contaminated water include cooling towers used in industrial cooling water systems as well as in large central air conditioning systems, evaporative coolers, hot water systems, showers, whirlpool spas, architectural fountains, room-air humidifiers, ice making machines, misting equipment, and similar disseminators that draw upon a public water supply. The overall fatality rate is about 15%, but this increases in those with underlying diseases. Such particles could originate from any infected water source. The microbe can spread more easily in poorly ventilated areas. The disease may also be spread in a hot tub if the filtering system is defective.
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