Limits on water use to be lifted tomorrow

DUBLIN CITY Council is expected to announce today it will lift water restrictions to allow for the New Year’s Eve celebrations tomorrow night.

The Restaurants Association of Ireland had claimed it would be an “absolute disaster” for the trade if restrictions meant members could not open on one of the busiest nights of the year.

However, the council’s city engineer Michael Phillips has warned that if water restrictions are lifted for tomorrow night, they will have to be imposed at another time to make up for the shortfall.

The situation in Dublin remains critical, with continuing overnight water restrictions in many areas, while other parts of the county will continue to be supplied from standpipes and water tankers.

Council water engineer Brian McKeown said it had lost 150 million litres from the system between Monday and yesterday, with demand continuing to outstrip supply from the reservoirs in the city where water is stored after treatment.

The situation was worst on Sunday and Monday when 130 million litres were lost, but it has since stabilised.

“We’re still dropping water out of storage and we are down at levels we don’t like to be at,” he warned. Mr McKeown said water restrictions would have to remain in place while demand continues to outstrip supply. Last night, the council extended the restrictions to include an area from Ballyboden to Ranelagh.

Even with water restrictions, demand on Tuesday was at 578 million litres, 40 million litres more than is usual for the time of year, indicating that tens of millions of litres are still being lost as a result of burst pipes and water mains.

Mr McKeown said there were burst pipes in a lot of properties where the owners had been away during the Christmas holidays. He said the ground remained frozen in many places long after the thaw had set in and some breakages were only becoming apparent now.

“We are out looking for those. As we are getting them, we are fixing them. Most pipes would have broken quite promptly on the thaw, but with the pressure down, it is hard to find others until we put the pressure back on and the breakages are coming to light.”

Glasnevin resident Kate Ó Raghallaigh said her family had not had water since St Stephen’s Day and the nearest water tanker was in Northside Shopping Centre in Coolock.

She said none of her family had a car to drive to it, and her mother was “nearly at the point of hospitalisation with the stress of it all”.

Fingal County Council has warned that its reservoirs are running “critically low”. The council said it had repaired nine water mains leaks over the past three days, but as the temperature has risen more leaks have come to light.

Naul, Walshestown, Ballyboghil, and Balrothery will have no water until the reservoir levels increase again, while householders in Balbriggan had a 24-hour restriction on water supplies which ends at 10am this morning. Most of the county will have 18 hours of water restrictions imposed from 6pm to noon.

South Dublin County Council is continuing to impose restrictions across the county from 7pm to 7am. Kildare County Council lost nine million litres earlier this week. Council spokesman Charlie Talbot said it would now move to cut off the water supply to households or premises which are unoccupied and where there is an indication that there is a leak or that somebody has left a tap running.

“We have a view that it is more important to protect the water supplies than to let these things run.

“People have been asked repeatedly to check their premises. There is an obligation on any person who has a supply from the principal water main to use it in a proper and reasonable way – and that includes not wasting it,” he said.