Communities across north Co Dublin urged to conserve water

Uisce Éireann has appealed to members of the public in north Co Dublin to conserve water and help with the return of supply to customers in the area as a new pipeline is completed.

Uisce Éireann, formerly Irish Water, is progressing the final phase of construction of a major new pipeline between Ballycoolin Reservoir and Swords, to secure the water supply for more than 350,000 customers across north Co Dublin.

In order to safely connect the new pipeline to the public network, the water supply to the region was switched off from 1am on Sunday morning.

Water services crews worked throughout the night and have successfully completed the connection works, and water is slowly beginning to return, Uisce Éireann said in a statement.

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Crews “will continue to closely monitor the local network to ensure any issues such as leaks or bursts are quickly identified and fixed” until water supplies are fully restored.

Due to the size of the pipes and network, it may take up to 10 hours for normal supply to return to all customers in the following areas: Swords, Santry, Malahide, Portmarnock, Kinsealy, Ballyboughal, Lissenhall, Donabate, Portrane, Turvey, Loughshinny, Palmerstown (Fingal), Rush, Lusk, nearby M1 service stations and surrounding areas.

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In the meantime, Uisce Éireann has appealed to all communities in the locality to conserve water where possible on Sunday.

This would allow the network to fully recharge and enable the water supply to return to affected customers as quickly as possible, the statement said.

William McKnight of Uisce Éireann acknowledged the disruption caused to the local community by the outage, and said crews are “continuing to work hard to restore normal water supply as quickly as possible”.

“This is a hugely important project for the people of north Co Dublin and for the wider GDA [Greater Dublin Area] in terms of delivering a sufficient and sustainable water supply to all,” he said.

Water conservation efforts such as not running taps needlessly, taking showers instead of baths and postponing the use of dishwashers and washing machines where possible would make a “big impact”.

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Further information on water conservation is available at www.water/conserve.

Alternative water supplies are available at the following locations until all supplies have returned to normal: Tesco Shopping Centre in Rush; Rathmore Park Car Park in Lusk; Seaview Park Car Park in Portrane; Donabate/Portrane Community Centre Car Park; St Finian’s Catholic Church in Swords South; St Colmcille’s GAA Club in Swords North; Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Malahide, and Portmarnock Sports and Leisure Club.

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Customers were reminded to use their own containers when taking water from the tanker and, as a precaution, to boil the water before drinking.