Restricted water supplies remain for 1.2m people

Irish Water has lifted eight boil-water notices in Co Waterford but restricted supplies remain in place for a large part of the Greater Dublin Region and across the country.

The utility said “good progress” was being made in the Greater Dublin area where a shortfall amounted to 60 million litres on Monday.

Irish Water said demand on the Dublin network which serves 1.2 million people was 589 million litres per day and it appealed to households to continue to conserve water to allow levels in reservoirs to recover. The utility said storage levels in the reservoirs remained below normal.

Those without any water are in parts of counties Tipperary, Galway, Leitrim and Wexford. Much of counties Dublin, Cork, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo and Meath have restricted supply.

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Irish Water said restrictions would remain in place on Thursday night in the local authority areas of Dublin City, South Dublin County, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Meath, Athlone, and Leitrim. It said partial restrictions would remain in Kiltimagh in Co Mayo for 50 customers, as well as in Carraroe, Ballinasloe, Williamstown and Moylough in Co Galway.

The utility said a “sustained programme of work” was required on its network over the next weeks and months to restore pre-Storm Emma levels in reservoirs.

Eamon Gallen, general manager of Irish Water said the utility was “extremely conscious of the hardship that supply restrictions impose on people and businesses”. He said Irish Water was “considering how we can further reduce restrictions over the weekend when the impact of restrictions can have an even greater impact on social and commercial life when sporting and social events are taking place”.

Kerosene

Some 12,000 of those with no water are in south Tipperary, where a water treatment plant was contaminated with kerosene. Irish Water is providing water tanks in the area.

There were 22 local authority and contract specialised detection crews out across the greater Dublin area and 26 repair crews “prioritising the most significant bursts and leaks first”.

People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said the Dublin 8 area had been “hit badly” due to impact of the severe weather conditions.

“Dublin 8 is a very old area with decades of under investment in water infrastructure. There was a huge amount of increased usage last week and more leaks in the system.

“Low water pressure in particular in Dolphin House is a real problem. Smaller complexes and private apartments in the area are also hit.

“I’ve been on to the local authority and council workers are flat out day and night fixing leaks.”

Irish Water said those on the edges of the network or on high ground were most affected by water supplies being curtailed.

“We expect that on high ground and on the extremities of the network, people will be more likely to experience some outages,” a spokeswoman said. “Likewise in apartment blocks we are getting reports of water pressure being poor particularly on higher grounds.”