High number of water outages in North Tipp

There has been a high number of water outages in North Tipperary during recent months, which has led to many people criticising Irish Water for not getting to grips with the situation.

Much of the pipe infrastructure in the county is not fit for purpose and needs to be upgraded.

Water supplies to houses and businesses are frequently being cut off because of pipes bursting.

Cllr John Carroll told the May monthly meeting of Nenagh Municipal District that the high number of outages is “worrying” and he criticised Irish Water for not managing the issue and failing to modernise the system. He said lack of investment in schemes over several years meant that many villages now had to rely on an “aged infrastructure”. He pointed out that the cuts to supplies in a number of villages in recent times was causing concern for local businesses and the farming sector, which relied so heavily on reliable water supplies.

Cllr Rocky McGrath pointed out that the number of outages is increasing. “Quite a few areas have been affected by bursting pipes.”

Cllr Joe Hannigan said the community in Puckane recently suffered a water outage. “There was a problem at one in the morning. Thankfully the Council responded very quickly and the leak was fixed.” He said the main pipe supply to the village was giving ongoing problems. He said several tarmac patches on the main road into the village were indications of the many times the council had to intervene to dig down to mend bursts to the pipe.

Cllr Ger Darcy reminded everyone of the boil water notice imposed on Borrisokane in May last year because of a water treatment plant problem. An ultraviolet system was installed which solved the problem (the problem was a bacteria called cryptosporidium).

Cllr Darcy also criticised Irish Water for not improving the wastewater situation in Cloughjordan. Because of an inadequate wastewater system in the village, building work has been stymied.

A member of the Council's water services department said the problematic pipe in Puckane will be replaced before the end of the year.

He added that the ultraviolet system is operating well in Borrisokane.

He said he couldn't give the councillors an answer about the problem in Cloughjordan.

“Every few weeks we are discussing water outages and the difficulty of dealing with Irish Water,” commented Cllr Seamus Morris. “Let's be honest here, I really don't think Irish Water has sufficient interest in rural Ireland. Irish Water's plan to pump water from Lough Derg to Dublin is about as useful to rural Ireland as a Russian gas pipe carrying gas to Germany.

“I have never seen the number of water pipe failures that we are now seeing. The reason is simple. Our water pipes are in an awful state.

“Irish Water told Fórsa that it didn't need Council workers being transferred to the Irish Water payroll.

“We should close down Irish Water. It is an unmitigated disaster.

“The Irish Water model of subcontracting everything out (such as the sewage tanks) was such a disaster that the subcontractor had to be replaced.”

Cllr Carroll said there were a significant number of waste water treatment plants in the district that had either reached capacity or were nearing that stage. These need to be upgraded to protect waterways, he said.