Water under ‘exceptional demand’ as staycationers hit holiday spots

The head of operations with Irish Water has warned that holiday resorts where the population has doubled and trebled in the good weather has led to “exceptional demand” exceeding capacity in some areas.

Tom Cuddy told Newstalk Breakfast that this was an annual pattern, but that the reopening of some businesses with the easing of Covid restrictions, has meant that Irish Water has had to make “some interventions”.

“With the hot weather demand is up, we have reports from several areas of exceptional demand and it’s really exceeding supply capacity in some areas.

“This is an annual pattern through the summer with sources dropping, but also some particular issues just now – we have staycations, holiday resorts where populations have doubled and trebled.

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“We also have agricultural areas, at this time of year crops and livestock watering means very high demand and then of course we have some businesses reopening with the Covid restrictions lifting so really for that reason we have to make some interventions, so far they’ve been relatively modest.”

Mr Cuddy said that Irish Water and the local authorities were monitoring the ongoing situation and if water could be conserved and excessive use avoided then the situation could be managed in a controlled way.

“We would like people to be mindful of water conservation and their indoor and outdoor use, avoid extended showers and having taps running when brushing teeth or when rinsing vegetables, watering of lawns – it’s no harm to let the lawn get a tan this time of year, the grass will recover very quickly and things like cleaning patios that can wait until other times of the year. It’s really not necessary at this time of year.”

Separately, Irish Water said the Dodder River in south Dublin had “all but dried up in parts” due to the heatwave. A spokeswoman said the river was left with “a series of pools” along the riverbed which is so dry in places “you could walk across it”.

Also in north county Dublin intermittent supply disruptions due to works at the Garristown Reservoir have been causing water shortages at Garristown, Ballymadun, Tobergregan, Baldwinstown, Palmerstown and surrounding areas.

Water tankers are available in Ballygarra Park, Garristown Village, but improvements to supply are expected to be in place on Monday.

Irish water said it also has concerns about a number of regional water sources across the country but at this stage hosepipe bans were not envisaged.