OVER 90 households in the Glengarriff area were without water during Christmas after a water mains pipe broke on the N71.
The issue was raised by Cllr Danny Collins (Ind Ire) at this week’s Western Division local authority meeting, who said that because it’s a community water scheme, they were forced to hire a company down from Galway to source the leak, along the N71.
‘They can’t work on it as they need a permit to work on the road, and I would hope that Cork County Council would work with Uisce Éireann and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) on resolving this,’ said Cllr Collins.
‘Water is a basic need and to go without it for over a week is very difficult.
‘They did refill their tanks on Sunday and it took 24 hours to do so. When they re-opened the valves they were losing over 4,000 litres of water an hour.’
Cllr Collins called for the Council to become involved with the residents and said the issue needs to be expedited.
Cllr Finbarr Harrington (Ind) who attended a meeting with residents last weekend, along with Cllr Collins, said some of the residents were now going into their ninth day without water, while those in higher regions could be going into their 10th day.
‘It’s just unacceptable and we have to intervene here. I know we have made some progress and Uisce Éireann has agreed to assist in repairing the mains, but there are two issues here – the fact that it happened and the fact it took so long to get fixed,’ said Cllr Harrington.
‘Because it was a community water scheme, it all came back to liability too, as the watermains is underneath the road. The water that is being supplied is an Uisce Éireann scheme, but the actual mains is the community water scheme.’
He said the scheme was originally set up in the 90s with about 30 houses, but now there are over 90 houses.
‘All these houses were without water all over the Christmas period.
‘We need to get an immediate solution to get the mains fixed and get the water back on for these residents but we also need to write to Uisce Éireann to ask them to take over this scheme.’
The Council’s senior executive officer Noreen O’Mahony said she would follow up the matter with the county engineer.
Meanwhile, customers in Baltimore, Sherkin Island, Heir Island, Church Cross, Derryconnell and Schull who lost their water supply last Sunday, had it restored on Monday afternoon.
However, as the network refilled, customers may have experienced intermittent disruption or low water pressure so alternative water supplies, in the form of bulk tankers, were made available at Schull Garda Station.
A spokesperson for Uisce Éireann said they regretted the inconvenience caused to customers and thanked them for their patience while they worked on repairs.
‘We are also appealing to customers to check for leaks in the home and carry out necessary leak repairs. We are asking farmers to check their service pipes, drinking troughs and outbuildings. Customers are urged to report loss of service or visible leaks to assist Uisce Éireann to identify leaks.’
