Galway's water supply struggling under pressure from cold weather
Irish Water is advising customers in County Galway that due to the extremely cold weather conditions and exceptionally high water demand, water treatment plants are struggling to keep up with supply demands.
Customers are being asked to conserve water to avoid reservoirs emptying and water pressure to homes and businesses being affected.
In Carraroe restrictions were imposed yesterday due to high demand and mechanical issues at the water treatment plant. Supply was restored to customers for two hours last night to allow attic storage tanks to refill and the restrictions are once again in place. Supply to the village and the nursing home is being maintained.
Customers in Tír an Fhia are without water since 5am this morning. A mechanical fault at the treatment plant will be repaired once it is safe for crews to attend the site.
There is huge demand being registered on the Tully and Letterfrack water supplies due to taps being left running in people’s homes. Irish Water is urging customers to conserve water. Restrictions will be in place on these schemes from 10am today until 6pm with supply due to be restored at 6pm for a couple of hours. Water will be restricted again overnight to fill the reservoirs.
Water levels on Inishbofin are very low following a mechanical failure at the water treatment plant. A repair crew will travel to the island as soon as possible to carry out repairs. Customers on the island are urged to conserve water.
In Galway east customers are again urged to conserve water by not running taps, taking showers instead of baths and to refrain from using dishwashers and washing machines.
The following areas are experiencing low pressure and/or loss of supply due to an increase in demand and some issues at treatment plants: Kilkerrin/Moylough, Mountbellew, Dunmore/Glenamaddy, Ahascragh and Williamstown.
Irish Water working in partnership with Galway County Council would like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience this is causing and assures customers that repairs will be completed as soon as possible.
Once further information is available we will issue another update. Updates will also be posted to the supply and service section of Irish Water’s website at www.water.ie/water-supply/supply-and-service-update/
As per the instructions of the NECG (National Emergency Coordination Group), to ensure the health and safety of our workers and the local authority staff working in water services, there will be no staff available to respond to water or wastewater emergencies during the red weather warning called by Met Eireann from 4pm Thursday 1 March.
The Irish Water contact centre will be available during these hours on 1850 278278 for customers to report outages. Calls will be logged for action after the red warning has been lifted. When the warning is lifted calls will be prioritised.
For customers who do lose supply, alternative water supplies will be mobilised after the red warning has lifted.
Information on dealing with frozen pipes is available on www.water.ie and water supply updates are available at www.water.ie/water-supply/supply-and-service-update/
Customers should conserve water where possible at this time by not running dishwashers or washing machines where possible or taking baths.