Sir, – Being without water is not “an inconvenience”. The United Nations general assembly explicitly recognised the human right to water and sanitation, and formally acknowledged the human right to water which entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. – Yours, etc,
EVE PARNELL,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – The photograph of the queue for water in Drogheda (Cyril Byrne, Front page, July 25th) reminded me of the African droughts. In these circumstances, Irish Water should deliver a container of water to households affected. If necessary, the army should be drafted in to help, but in any event it's not acceptable that Irish citizens should be queueing for water. Can our politicians please take note. – Yours, etc,
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SHEILA DEEGAN,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – With the recent rupturing of a major water main that resulted in up to 70,000 residents being deprived of water, is it possible to understand how international venture funds would be lining up to take over Irish Water? I suspect in the water utility sector, predictable cash flow only occurs after reliable water flow. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT O’ROURKE,
Lucan, Co Dublin.
Sir, – One would wonder where Paul Murphy TD and his cohorts stand today given the catastrophic water shortages in the north-east and the stark warning from Irish Water that this is far from an isolated incident, with the revelation that there is 1,000km of similar 50- year-old pipes around the country at risk at any moment.
In addition, almost every other water delivery system is at risk due to decades of neglect with a continuing leak rate of 40 to 50 per cent. This is before we address the water treatment systems that have been the subject of similar neglect and potentially endanger life.
Mr Murphy, if he is to earn his salary as a TD, might enlighten your readers how this problem can be tackled within current resources without the need for additional water taxes.
Populist politics as practised by Mr Murphy has a price and many citizens are beginning to understand the implications in the most awful fashion.
I paid my taxes as required as a responsible and informed citizen. At this stage I don’t want a refund and particularly so at an additional €10 million cost to the hard-pressed taxpayer. – Yours, etc,
DEREK Mac HUGH,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – On Monday, a boiling hot day, Irish Water said it would be Thursday before it has a replacement pipe delivered so we may have water in Co Louth/east Meath by Friday if we are lucky – a whole week after the event.
Meanwhile Meath County Council informs me that it has 16 water tankers throughout the county, two of which are stationed in a housing estate in the north of the town of Ashbourne. Presumably Meath County Council and Irish Water have no current map of Meath and are unaware that this point is a least two kilometres from the southern edge of the town. So, if one does not live near the water point one can do without.
An added problem is that the shops have run out of bottled water, so those returning home from work on Monday evening would not even have bottled water.
As for waste water : the town will be inundated with sewage as it is impossible to flush toilets.
Yet the biggest joke of all is that the GAA recently got €30 million for a stadium in Cork yet the Government cannot find €3 million to replace the Drogheda main water pipe. And funnier still is the fact that we have seen more heavy rain in the past two months that I can remember in a recent summer.
A primary school pupil would have more grasp of the situation than our current Dáil complete with court jester, aka a minister for sport!
Just where are the Government’s priorities? It’s time that TDs got real about providing the necessities from our taxes and refrained from frivolities. – Yours, etc,
LORETTO BROWNE,
Ashbourne, Co Meath.
Sir, – One’s sympathy goes to those compliant, law-abiding citizens of the Drogheda/east Meath region who paid their water charges and whose homes and businesses now labour without water due to collapsed infrastructure.
Belonging to the silent majority they will not of course clamour for preferential service over their louder “we won’t pay” neighbours as the water tankers roll in from outlying areas with an emergency supply for all.
It would be interesting to know what portion of the 70,000 affected citizens failed to pay their modest water charges and whether this incident might give them pause to realise that delivery of a reliable supply of safe, potable water should not be taken for granted, and costs money. – Yours, etc,
PJ McDERMOTT,
Westport, Co Mayo.