'It's a disgrace': Huge frustration following water outage in Offaly town

The water supply in Birr and the surrounding areas is now restored following an outage which severely affected residents and business throughout the town over the weekend.

The disruption to the water services took place due to a major issue at the water treatment plant which was initially set to last for a matter of hours.

The issue took much longer than expected as Uisce Éireann encountered various stumbling blocks in resolving the outage and the disruptions remained for more than 48 hours before being restored on Tuesday morning, September 22.

Although the water has now been restored, there is a high level of frustration among councillors, residents and businesses in the town over the continuous water issues.

Many councillors serving the Birr area vented at the handling of the outage by Uisce Éireann as well as the frequency of the water disruptions happening in the prominent Offaly town in recent times.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Audrey Hennessy-Kennedy thanked the local Uisce Éireann representatives who worked to resolve the issue but raised concerns over the situation at the weekend.

She said: “There are serious questions that need to be answered by Uisce Éireann about the wider response to this outage. How can a town the size of Birr be left without a water supply for more than 48 hours, with such limited backup support and just one water tanker available.”

She continued: “This is something I intend to raise directly with Uisce Éireann and I will be seeking clarification on what contingency measures are in place for an incident of this scale. The impact on our local businesses has also been significant. Restaurants, cafés, hotels and other businesses were affected on Sunday, with some having to close their doors during what would normally be a very busy period.

The Birr Municipal District Councillor concluded: “I am particularly disappointed by the lack of clear and timely information provided to businesses and residents throughout the outage. People need to know what is happening, how long they can expect the disruption to continue, and what support is available to them.”

“I will be raising these concerns directly with Uisce Éireann and asking for answers on the handling of this outage, the contingency arrangements available, and how communication with businesses and residents can be improved should something like this happen again.”

Councillor Eleanor Clendennen also expressed her disappointment at the water disruptions over the weekend. She declared: “I have contacted Uisce Éireann and asked for an explanation regarding these ongoing water outages. Both residents and businesses have been left without water often with little or NO advance notice.

The Fine Gael representative added: “This is simply not good enough. I have made it clear to Uisce Éireann that this simply cannot happen again. An entire town cannot be left without water for up to 48 hours with little or no notice.”

“Birr deserves answers as to why these outages keep happening, what is being done to address the problem, and what measures will be put in place to prevent it happening again. I will continue to press Uisce Éireann until we get those answers.”

Updates were consistently provided on the water disruption over the weekend by Cllr Audrey Hennessy-Kennedy and Cllr Eleanor Clendennen as well as Sinn Féin Councillor Sean Maher and Fine Gael TD for Offaly, John Clendennen.

However, several local residents took to social media to highlight the lack of communication and clarity on the water outage by Uisce Éireann throughout its duration.

One user commented under a post by Councillor Hennessy-Kennedy stating: “It’s a disgrace, only for your input nobody would have known what was happening. Serious questions need to be asked as this has been something detrimentally affecting the town all year.”

Another person replied to the same update saying: “Yes, I agree, it’s a disgrace and not good enough, only for your updates we would have known nothing.”

Residents also pointed out the inconvenience which was caused by the water disruption with one local commenting: “I've lost count on how many times this has happened in the last few years! Time to start collecting rain water and have it ready for small daily runnings of households like back in the day, it’s laughable but I'm not even joking.”

A final user commenting under a post by Birr Municipal District Councillor Sean Maher remarked: “Something needs to be done about this. I'm now left without running hot water as my air to water system has stopped working because of the water outage. I'm 2 full days without any water & 3 full days without hot water, with 2 kids.”

Following the initial outage at the weekend, the water supply in Birr was turned off because the reservoir was unable to keep up with the level of demand in the town.

Uisce Éireann turned back on the water supply on Sunday but a representative for the national utility said that the system had to be brought back up to full pressure very slowly and carefully.

This meant that it would take a number of hours before full pressure is restored to all areas of the town that have been affected but the expectation was that water supplies would be restored to all affected homes on Sunday night.

Fianna Fáil Councillor Audrey Hennessy-Kennedy provided an update via social media on Sunday where she revealed that Uisce Éireann requested that water be conserved in the town where possible.

This was due to water levels in the reservoir dropping to a critically low level as Uisce Éireann worked to get the reservoir refilled as quickly as possible.

The consequence of that update was that further water outages would persist throughout the town during the day on Monday in order to allow the refill process to take place and to help the reservoir recover.

As part of that update, Councillor Hennessy-Kennedy made the request for a water tanker to be provided in the town for residents so that they could collect water for essential supplies if needed.

Uisce Éireann brought a water tanker to the path outside the St Vincent de Paul office on Wilmer Road as residents were encouraged to bring their own containers for supply whilst the outage was ongoing.

Water was finally restored across the town on Tuesday morning with residents reminded that water may appear cloudy or discoloured for a period of time as it makes its way back through the pipes. They were also asked to let the water run for a short period until it clears before use.