PEOPLE IN PARTS of north county Dublin may experience water outages today as Irish Water works to resolve a drop in treated drinking water levels in a number of reservoirs.

Irish Water customers in Garristown, Ballymadun, Tobergregan, Baldwinstown, Palmerstown and surrounding areas may be impacted by low water pressure or outages until 10am tomorrow.

Customers who are registered on Irish Water’s vulnerable customer database are being contacted.

In a press statement, Irish Water said that demand is outstripping supplies, resulting in very low water levels in further reservoirs supplying these areas.

The public are being asked to conserve water by:

• Taking shorter showers
• Fixing dripping taps or leaking toilets
• Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth or shaving
• Saving and reusing water collected from baths, showers, and hand basins in the garden
• Using a rose head watering can instead of a hose for watering plants
• Using a bucket and sponge to wash your car instead of a hose
• Reporting any leaks to Irish Water by phoning 1800 278 278

An alternative water supply is in place, and water tankers with clean drinking water are available in Ballygarra Park and opposite the shop in Garristown Village for the duration of the outage. Users should use their own containers when taking water from the tankers and should boil the water before consumption as a precautionary measure.

Tselo Tlou of Irish Water said: “Irish Water is appealing to all customers to conserve water as the reservoirs refill. While handwashing remains a priority, simple water conservation efforts can have a big impact on reducing demand on the supply.

“Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth and shaving can save up to 6 litres of water per minute. Taking a shower instead of a bath or using a watering can rather than a hose when gardening can also make a big difference in water use.”

Night time restrictions and urgent appeals for conservation have been made in a number of locations across the country to ensure a consistent day time supply. While the public are being asked to conserve, there are currently no plans to implement a Water Conservation Order.

Tlou continued: “In Irish Water, we are continually working with our local authority partners to look at what we call the supply/demand balance. This means that we need to ensure that we can supply more treated drinking water than is required for use. We can manage this by conserving water; losing less by repairing leaks; and supplying smarter by ensuring that all of our plants are working optimally.”