Finnish Town Faces Fecal Foul-up[Nokia]

Spiegel ^ | 07 Jan 2008 | Spiegel

[BGHater]

A city in Finland best known as the namesake to mobile phone giant Nokia is floundering in filthy drinking water after a municipal employee sent thousands of gallons of sewage into the water supply. Thousands have fallen ill -- and the water is still dirty.

The 30,000 residents of the small Finnish city of Nokia have long lived according to what city leaders describe as a "principle" etched in stone. "We walk in Nokia boots, we use Nokia toilet paper and we talk using Nokia phones," the saying goes.

Indeed, for close to 150 years the city's fortunes have been inextricably connected to those of the eponymous corporation founded here that would grow to become one of the world's leading telecommunications companies, with almost four times as many workers worldwide as the city has residents.

Now, though, the brand is threatened by a scandal the company can do little about: the "Nokia Water Crisis."

The affair began six weeks ago when a municipal employee in Nokia unwittingly released thousands of gallons of sewage into the city's water supply last November, and over a month later authorities are still trying to clean up the water.

The contamination occurred when the employee turned a wrong valve at the city's sewage treatment plant, a mistake that sent 400,000 liters (105,600 gallons) of only partially filtered waste water spewing down a pipe that feeds the city's water supply.

[BGHater]

DPA

Provisional plumbing in Nokia

[Sax]

I want to see that switch:

Flip it to the left the lable says, “Raw Sewage,” flip it to the right, “Municipal Water Supply.”

[BGHater]

No kidding. Lol.

[rednesss]

"I want to see that switch:"

No doubt, who's the brainiac that designed a system where the plumbing for sewage is even remotely connected to the plumbing for potable water???? This has happened in the US though, I remember a story about how a city worker plumbed a sewage pump into the city's water main. Yuck...

[George from New England]

In a business city water system they won’t allow such a path to be plumbed in the first place.

If you are a homeowner with city water and you manage to get a permit to install a well (only for irrigation), you cannot even plumb the two systems together.

But of course the government breaks the laws, laws are only for sheeple.

[caisson71]

What kind of plumbing or engineering even makes that possible?

[a real Sheila]

I know! WTF?
For what reason would there even exist a switch that would connect raw sewage to the water supply and WHY would it have ever needed to be flipped in the past of future? I can think of no circumstance that would ever warrant that.

And since it did exist, why wasn’t it CLEARLY MARKED or colored coded....BROWN?!!!

[Catholic Canadian]

They’re just trying to make the Islamics feel more at home.

[E. Cartman]

They’re just trying to make the Islamics feel more at home.

Was the employee who messed up so badly and affirmative action hire?

[WesternCulture]

“They’re just trying to make the Islamics feel more at home.”

- Finland is actually among the LEAST Muslim of all countries worldwide. Only 0.4% of the population are Muslims.

United States: 1%
Canada: 2%
United Kingdom: 2.7%
Sweden: 3%
Germany: 3.9%
Netherlands: 5.5 - 6%
France: 6.9 - 10%
Russia: 10 - 14%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country

So, does this mean Eurabia is in the making?

Some would say not:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurabia#Critique_of_the_Eurabia_theory