IRISH Water is examining an option to improve the water supply to a Northside town badly affected by outages during the recent hot spell of weather.
Residents in a number of areas in Skerries were furious after their supply suffered recently from restrictions imposed by the utility company.
A spokeswoman for Irish Water said in the longer term, the company is examining an option to provide a booster pumping station on the feeder main to Thomastown reservoir to increase its capacity from approxmately 2.8 million litres per day to four million litres per day. She said this would be subject to full evaluation of the pipe capacity for the increased pressure.
“This option will require detailed planning, design and construction and would be targeted at 2019 delivery,” she told Northside People.
“At the same time, we will need to examine if a local booster pump could be used to increase pressure to Hamilton Hill locally.
“As part of the review of water supply infrastructure across the Greater Dublin Area, other strengthening of the strategic networks is planned over the next two to three years to give greater resilience in the system, for example to enable greater flexibility between the Fingal and Dublin City supply networks in this area.”
Local councillor Tom O’Leary (FG) said he met with senior Fingal Water Services staff last Tuesday (June 12) to discuss the issue. “I need to stress that Irish Water, an independent company, are the lead company responsible for this situation,” he said.
“Fingal County Council only provide the local service that Irish Water contract them to provide to Fingal. They outlined to me the current water supply system for Skerries and their view of why we have a water supply issue in Skerries.
“I pressed them for a solution to a problem that now is a regular issue for new homes in the north of the town at Barnageeragh Cove but also in older estates like Hillside, Selskar, St Patrick’s Close, Mourne View, Dublin Road, Townparks and other areas.”
Cllr O’Leary said 20 outages of water supply have been reported to him in the last 18 months.
“That’s an average one day per month when residents and families, who have saved for and bought new homes, don’t know if they have water to take a shower before or after work. It’s totally unacceptable,” he said.
Cllr O’Leary welcomed news that a solution is being examined.
“In my opinion they (Irish Water) also need to look at possibly upgrading the supply of water coming into Thomastown or increase the capacity of the reservoir so we have more reserves for Skerries,” he said. We have Irish Water focused (on) fixing this now. I will keep the pressure on them to follow through with a real solution as soon as possible.
“It would not be tolerated with electricity supply so it will not be tolerated with water supply. Now is the time to fix this problem for everybody in Skerries.”
Dublin Fingal TD Brendan Ryan (Lab) said: “I have lived in Skerries for 40 years, through numerous heatwaves and dry spells and never before have I seen such a catastrophic failure in our water system.
“Separate to the general water problem in Skerries associated with the levels in the Thomastown reservoir, there is a particular problem in the newer estates of Barnageeragh Cove and Hamilton Hill.
“These estates were granted planning permission and built in recent years. The tests for water capacity and water security should have been rock solid. We need an immediate and long-term solution.”