The number of revelers who returned from the Modul’air music festival in Ghent’s Flanders Expo with stomach and intestinal complaints is higher than expected. The organizer denies that the signage on taps with non-potable water was inadequate.
Fifteen to thirty: that is the estimate of organizer Gilles De Bruyne for the number of visitors who became ill after drinking water at his Modul’air music festival. This attracted 12,000 visitors to Flanders Expo in Ghent at Easter. The organizer bases this number on the fifteen emails with complaints that reached him. But from the emails to the editors of Het Nieuwsblad it can be deduced that the number of revelers who suffered stomach and intestinal complaints due to water at the festival is in any case more than a hundred.
It is difficult to say exactly which water caused the complaints. Festival goers talk about “water fountains”, “tap water in the toilets”, “drinking troughs” and “tap water” in general. A number of visitors indicate that they did not see any signs indicating that the water was not drinkable. Some say that the signage was only noticed when people had already been drinking. One visitor admits that “it was indeed indicated” and that it was “basically our own fault” that they became ill, but regrets that there was no free tap water available at the festival. The visitor also says that she “saw people drinking from the taps all day and night”.
Stickers
According to organizer Gilles De Bruyne, we will know on Monday what the source of all that water misery is. He previously indicated that the tap water at Flanders Expo is now also checked, even though Flanders Expo itself inspects its pipes twice a year. The rented mobile toilets and taps at the Modul’air festival use tap water.
That water is not drinkable and, according to Gilles De Bruyne, this was sufficiently indicated: “The signage was large enough, but we note that it has been removed here and there. But there were still more than enough stickers. In the emails we received, people also admitted that they had seen the signs and therefore knew that the water was not drinkable.” The organizer formally denies claims that festival employees told visitors they could drink the water: “That is not possible. Every employee was aware of this. It is also not true that the drinkable water at the festival was sold out. There was more than enough.”
Stomach and intestinal complaints
The people who became infected suffered from stomach and intestinal complaints, had to vomit, had diarrhea and became very tired. Apparently people also became ill who had not drunk the water; they became infected because they came into contact with people who had.
According to toxicologist Jan Tytgat, it may be a bacterium that could develop in stagnant water at a temperature between 30 and 50 degrees: “At a higher temperature, such a bacterium dies. But at lower temperatures and standing water you are seen. I dare not comment on the cause, you also get these types of contaminants when water comes into contact with pets or livestock through manure or urine. A lab can find that out very quickly.”
Most Modul’air visitors who became ill were able to clear the infection in a few days. “Compare it to getting sick from food or tap water on holiday, you can get rid of that fairly quickly. It only becomes a problem if you develop a fever and the symptoms persist. Then you need to go to the doctor, possibly for a course of antibiotics.”
