IRISH WATER HAS appealed for people to conserve water as restrictions were set to take effect for a third night this evening from 8pm, until 6am tomorrow morning.
On Monday, it said that the demand for drinking water across the Dublin region outstripped supply by 28 million litres. This equates to the average daily usage of the population of Cork city.
Irish Water also said that “the restrictions over the past two nights have resulted in some improvement but we have a way to go”.
It had this advice for people during the restrictions:
After restrictions yesterday, the utility said that demand had significantly reduced due to the shutting off of running taps and broken pipes within premises.
However, leaks on the network are still a major cause for concern. Irish Water said the leaks “will require a sustained programme of work over weeks and months to reach pre-Storm Emma levels, which were themselves too high, and we are working to reduce”.
In Dublin the condition of the pipes where the average age is 80 years, significant leakage and increased demand has resulted in the need to reduce pressure overnight in a bid to allow reservoirs to fill and avoid daytime outages that would have a huge impact on homes, schools and business.
It said it hopes to moderate the water restrictions as the situation improves.
“Concerning” reports from areas such as Rathmines, Rathgar and Milltown came in on Tuesday night and Irish Water said that persistent problems with water supply in these parts “suggests there are significant leaks”.
Detection and repair crews have been dispatched to these areas “as a matter of urgency”.
Furthermore, areas such as Ballyboden and Mount Venus Road were also without water and Irish Water said it would work with local authorities to arrange an alternative water supply if the situation doesn’t improve there.
The utility added that 16,000 people outside Dublin remain without water, while 37,000 are on restricted supply. Tipperary also remains badly affected, with 12,000 without water, with further outages in Galway, Leitrim and Wexford.
Full supply has been restored however, in Westmeath, Laois, Longford, Kildare and Donegal.
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