A BANDON councillor is urging Irish Water not to leave the town without fully completing the multi-million euro upgrade, after four back gardens were flooded with raw sewage last weekend.
Cllr Gillian Coughlan’s call follows the incident on New Road last Friday night where the gardens were flooded with the contaminated water, following torrential rain, for the second time in 10 days.
Of all the West Cork towns hit by flooding, including Bantry and Dunmanway, Bandon fared the worst for these residents and others on Parnell Street , whose gardens were also flooded.
Cllr Coughlan is now pleading with Irish Water to do something about concerns relating to pipe capacity in Market Quay.
‘Don’t leave us now without having the job done 100% and don’t leave Market Quay unaddressed. It’s the final piece of the jigsaw,’ said Cllr Coughlan.
‘Last Friday night’s events gave an illustration of how things would pan out for everybody. The contractor is nearly complete. I do commend the contractors on their work so far, but I’m afraid we will be left with a job undone.’
Cllr Coughlan said that she will be making contact with the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien, to ask him to direct Irish Water to address concerns about sewage pipe capacity in Market Quay and the need for a pumping station in the vicinity of Church Lane.
‘Market Quay is the most glaring omission and I don’t accept Irish Water’s reasons for not working on Market Quay,’ she said.
‘It’s cutting corners and their reasons don’t make sense.’
Meanwhile, Bantry was also hit with flooding for the third time since August. Fire station officer Ian Vickery said that a number of premises got hit by flooding, but generally there was no great damage caused.
And for the third time in a single year, residents of Chapel Street in Dunmanway faced the serious threat of having their homes flooded.
Cllr Deirdre Kelly (FF) called for standing orders to be suspended at a meeting of the Western Committee on Monday, to discuss the ever increasing threat of flooding.
Cllr Declan Hurley called for an ‘inter-agency approach’ involving the local authority, the Office of Public Works and Inland Fisheries, to deal with the ongoing flooding at Chapel Street, and to have the works completed this year.
