TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE were left without water in Kerry last night after a water main burst in the centre of Killarney.

Kerry County Council crews and Irish Water staff have been out all night to try to get the water supply back as soon as possible as 10,000 people were left without water overnight.

The water main burst at 8pm last night, causing a freak flood in the Kerry town as water rushed onto the street.

Speaking on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1 the managing director of Irish Water Jerry Grant said the pipe has been replaced but the supply is not back.

The supply is not back yet. There’s a lot of air in the system. This is a large pipe, it’s 600 millimetre pipe.

“We have these asbestos pipes in Kerry and in fact we had a couple of bursts like this, this is not the first time we’ve had a serious burst on the pipeline.

These asbestos pipes are just at the point where they burst very suddenly and unfortunately the damage they cause is very considerable.

The burst main is part of the water supply scheme from Killarney to Tralee.

Grant said, “The town of Killarney is largely being supplied at the moment because this leak is downstream the problem is we’re running low on reservoirs serving on up to Tralee.

We’re hoping the water we will be back before the reservoirs run out but it’s getting very tight in Kerry at the moment.

Grant added that this burst is “very similar to the pipeline in Drogheda which burst a couple of times in the last year and caused major problems”.