Uisce Éireann has once again come in for sharp criticism over its poor communications after a burst mains pipe left 500 homes and businesses without water for most of last Friday.

The utility company, formerly known as Irish Water, confirmed to the Galway City Tribune that a burst pipe in the Lough Atalia area resulted in an outage for customers in College Road, College Green, The Elms, Fairgreen, Forster Street, Forster Court, St Patrick’s Avenue and Eyre Square.

The Tribune understands that Middle Street and other areas of the City Centre were also affected, with several businesses forced to close up shop when the water cut off in the afternoon.

A spokesperson for UÉ confirmed that the repair works were completed and running water was restored by 10.15pm on Friday night.

“Uisce Éireann fully understands the impact such an outage can have and apologises to affected residents and businesses in the area for the disruption caused by this unplanned issue, and for any uncertainty over supply restoration times,” they said.

“Uisce Éireann crews worked into the night to repair the damage and the network was configured to minimise disruption to as many customers as possible.”

Local Councillor Níall McNelis blasted UÉ for what he described as a “total failure of communication”, and said by the time water was restored, many businesses had made the call to close up because they had no certainty on when the supply would return.

“There was no communication from Irish Water to tell people what was going on.

“Everyone understands that a burst pipe can happen, but they need to let people know what’s going on. The councillors have a number to ring Irish Water and when we did call, they could give us no additional information,” he said.

“There was nothing on their social media channels to explain what was going on either,” continued Cllr McNelis.