Those wanting to take a dip these summer holidays are being warned to avoid Drakesbrook Weir with the Shire of Waroona warning of the presence of dangerous organisms.<\/p>\n
Recent testing by the shire has identified a higher than usual presence of E. coli, enterococci and thermophilic amoebae and is urging swimmers and holiday-goers to avoid contact with the water.<\/p>\n
While the thermophilic amoebae detected was not Naegleria fowleri \u2014 an organism capable of destroying brain tissue which has been found in the weir several times in recent years \u2014 the shire has urged caution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re asking people to avoid swimming, wading, or having contact with the water until we receive the next set of results. This is a short-term precaution, and we will keep you informed every step of the way,\u201d a shire spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
A WA Health spokesperson has backed local government control of this issue, and also asked locals to steer clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department provides ongoing advice and support to key agencies including Department of Water Environmental Regulation, Water Corporation and Local Government on the management of any public health risks arising from the use of natural water bodies,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The health warning comes after the the shire opted to dock its fan-favourite pontoon in early December as the water level was too low.<\/p>\n
While the shire will continue testing the waters, a temporary advisory sign has been put up, with further results to be made public when available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those wanting to take a dip these summer holidays are being warned to avoid Drakesbrook Weir with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,45],"class_list":["post-424110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}