Dozens left without water at height of searing heat
Dozens of homes and farmers outside between Athenry and Turloughmore were left without running water in the searing heat this week as Irish Water was accused of “ignoring the problem” for the past six months.
And with temperatures in the mid-twenties for the past week, farmers were struggling to feed livestock while families were scrambling to deal with the taps running dry.
Local councillor, David Collins, said this was an “emergency situation” and he had been repeatedly raising issues about water supply in the Carnaun area since last November, to no avail.
He had been bringing water pressure issues on the public water supply to Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water) and had been given several different reasons for the problem, but no solution.
“It’s about 20 houses and a number of farms. I started contacting Irish Water about this in November, informing them the water supply was very low. Initially they said it was because of problems with the Carnmore Reservoir but every couple of weeks, I’ve been contacting them and they have been giving different reasons why the pressure is low,” said Cllr Collins.
“It’s a rural area with a lot of farms. I spoke to one farmer this week who said even before the water cut, it was taking him up to three minutes to fill a bucket of water.”
Householders in the area have been left unable to take a shower, wash clothes or turn on dishwashers, he said, and some had even had their appliances destroyed because the water cut while they were on.
“I’ve never got any response from them. The Director of Services [for Infrastructure and Operations] in the Council, Derek Pender, set up a meeting two weeks ago with Irish Water and I joined to raise it. They said they’d go away and come back to me and I haven’t heard anything.
“I got a call from the people living up there last Thursday to say the water was down to a trickle and on Tuesday, it was gone,” said Cllr Collins.
The Fine Gael councillor said it was hugely frustrating as a local representative to be unable to get a straight answer from Uisce Éireann, or any indication of what they planned to do to address the problem.
“It’s frustrating for us, but not half as frustrating for the people out there who have no water. Nobody is taking responsibility,” he said.
Cllr Collins raised the matter at a meeting of the Athenry Oranmore Municipal District on Tuesday where he called on the County Council to apply pressure on Uisce Éireann.
“It’s like being on a merry-go-round,” he said, adding that efforts to get a reply from Uisce Éireann were eliciting the same “generic responses”.
“Everything seems to be going into the abyss. This is a First-World country and we have people with no water,” he said.
Director of Services Alan Farrell said he would raise the matter with the relevant department in County Hall.
In response to a query from the Connacht Tribune, Uisce Éireann put the issues down to the recent warm weather and said they had deployed a crew to the Carnaun area.
“Uisce Éireann understands the inconvenience such outages can cause and apologise for any inconvenience caused,” said a spokesperson, adding that it could take hours for supply to return to “customers on higher ground or at the end of the network”.
A review of service interruptions in the Carnaun area was being undertook, they said, and Uisce Éireann would continue to work with Galway County Council to ensure supply.
“Once this review is complete, an assessment will be completed to determine next steps.”
Ironically this comes as Uisce Éireann and Galway County Council announced what they called ‘essential overnight water restrictions’ across a large swathe of the county from last night to help manage supply.
The restrictions from 11pm to 7am will affect Tully, Letterfrack, Carna Cill Chiaráin, Carraroe, Inis Oirr and Ros Muc in Connamara, as well as Ballinasloe and parts of what it defined as Mid-Galway.