TAP WATER SUPPLIES:WATER SUPPLIES to around 80,000 people in Cork city are unlikely to be restored for at least a week following extensive damage to the city's main pumping station, Cork city manager Joe Gavin warned yesterday. The entire northside of Cork city and a section of the southside are without water supplies after the river Lee flooded the pumping station on the Lee Road early on Friday morning, submerging it under several metres of water.
The flooding forced Cork City Council engineers to shut off connections to the city water network
to prevent contaminated flood water entering the system, and a series of emergency supplies have
been set up to supply the northside and parts of the southside.
Mr Gavin said he was reluctant to give a specific date for restoration of supplies, as council engineers are still waiting to assess damage to the Lee Road pumping station, but that the best case scenario now was that supplies would be restored next weekend.
"It's very difficult to say when it will be restored because of the situation that has resulted from the
flooding, where the entire treatment plant has been submerged under several metres of water –
something like that has never happened before," he said.
"We're dealing with a totally unprecedented situation. Our staff managed to get in today to dismantle some of the equipment and it's been sent for repair, but they are still trying to get to some more
of the equipment which is still submerged to try and assess the damage.
“We don’t want to say exactly when it will be up and running again, but it will be certainly a number of days – we don’t see it functioning again until the end of the week and the earliest would be next weekend – that’s our best guestimate.”
Cork City Council director of service environment, Gerry O’Beirne, confirmed the council is taking water from the Inniscarra station eight miles from the city, and relaying it through a reservoir at Chetwynd, near Bishopstown. This supply is enabling the council to maintain supplies to houses in the southeast and southwest of the city, but a central section of the southside is served by the Lee Road pumping station, and this area is without supply along with the northside, he said.
Mr O'Beirne said the council had succeeded in utilising an old mains to pipe water from the Glashaboy reservoir near Glanmire to reconnect the city centre island and out as far as lower Blackpool, but pressure problems had prevented the supply being restored to higher areas.
Mr O'Beirne stressed that any houses in the city currently with running taps are getting good
quality water, and that while they may have minor problems with pressure and colour, it is suitable
for drinking and sanitation.
The council has put in place 10 emergency supply points for areas without water, including five fixed standpipes and a relay of tankers at Blackpool, Ballyvolane and Hollyhill shopping centres, and at St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital in Gurranebraher.
Community liaison gardaí and members of the Defence Forces began distributing bottled water
to elderly and infirm people who are unable to get to local distribution points, as well as to nursing
homes, with the operation being co-ordinated by gardaí at Gurranebraher on the city's northside.
Mr Gavin said the council had brought in 120 new 1,000-litre tanks, which would be manned
and located in affected areas to supply water for sanitation purposes only. He was confident this
would help alleviate the situation.
Cork County Council has urged people to conserve water, and issued a boil notice to some 14,000
households served by water schemes at Inchigeelagh, Clondrohid, Ballineen and Innishannon.
Cork county manager Martin Riordan said the county council was continuing to supply water to
the city, with the pumping station at Inniscarra upping its daily output from around 16 million gallons
to 22 million gallons to help after the Lee Road plant closure.