CANBERRA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Indigenous residents of a remote Australian mining town are relying on bottled water to survive after lead was found in their normal supply.
The people of Garawa, an indigenous community 970 km south-east of Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory (NT), have called on the Health Department to blood test residents to ensure that nobody has contracted lead poisoning.
The NT government on Thursday posted notices around Garawa advising residents not to drink, cook, or brush their teeth with water from the regular water supply.
Keith Rory, a Garawa leader, said the community was extremely concerned.
"It's frightened us. It's frightened people all over the region. People are very scared," Rory told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Friday.
"Its a big concern, not only for the Garawa camps, but for all the clan groups."
"People are getting bottled water from the shop now."
Notices posted by the government on Thursday advised that the contamination was a "short-term problem" and that pregnant women and young children were "most likely to be affected by drinking water with lead in it."
Members of the Garawa community first expressed concerns that lead would be found in their drinking water in 2014 when it was revealed that Glencore's lead-zinc mine on the nearby McArthur River had contaminated fish and up to 400 head of cattle.
Glencore, a Swiss mining company, said in a statement that there was "no indication" that this incident was in any way related to McArthur Rivet Mining's operations.
Rory said the people of Garawa were more concerned about their own wellbeing than the source of the lead.
"We don't know whether it's coming from old pipes, or there's lead in the water itself. Those are the two options we are thinking about now," he said.
"I want them to take it deeper, investigate, not only testing the water."
"I also want to see the little babies, who aren't drinking only breast milk, and kids, from small to big, start getting tested."
