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GSD Say School Closures Could Have Been Prevented

The GSD have said the closure of the four schools could've been "prevented if proper checks had been carried out in the run-up to schools fully reopening".

A statement from the GSD follows below:

The closure of four schools because of concerns as to the presence of Legionnaire’s disease in polluted water could have been prevented if proper checks had been carried out in the run-up to schools fully reopening. 

There has been significant discussion about the dangers of stagnant water in the technical and academic press for weeks and, to the GSD’s knowledge, as far back as late April. 

One such article in April that referred to a study of Purdue University, a leading American University, highlighted that: 

“While millions of people are under orders to stay home amid the coronavirus pandemic, water is sitting in the pipes of empty office buildings and gyms, getting old and potentially dangerous. 

When water isn’t flowing, organisms and chemicals can build up in the plumbing. It can happen in underused gyms, office buildings, schools, shopping malls and other facilities. These organisms and chemicals can reach unsafe levels when water sits in water pipes for just a few days. But, what happens when water sits for weeks or months?..... 

Harmful organisms, like the bacteria that cause Legionnaire’s disease, can grow. If not maintained, devices like filters, water tanks, heaters and softeners can become organism incubators.” 

That article pointed to the need to take public health steps to flush out stagnant water and other precautionary checks before re-commissioning buildings affected by closures or partial closures. It mentioned that several public health or government agencies in a number of countries were issuing recommendations about this. 

There have been a number of similar articles in other media sources and more recently, over the last couple of weeks, in the British press. 

Leader of the Opposition Keith Azopardi said: “As such this was avoidable. We urge the Government to now conduct a comprehensive programme of checks of public buildings from this perspective. Those that have been closed or partially closed during the lockdown need to be reviewed to ensure the stagnant water issue is dealt with.” 

Shadow Education Minister, Edwin Reyes added: “Obviously given that the Government only discovered the presence of Legionnaire’s in the four schools now they had to be closed. But if timely checks had been done before schools had opened then it would not have been necessary to close them causing further disruption to families and students.”