Athlone residents hit by water supply cuts

After a week of almost constant rainfall, many Athlone residents have had their domestic water supply cut off at night. Mechanical problems have led to night-time disruptions at homes supplied by the Annagh Reservoir - which serves much of the east side of Athlone as well as areas along the Ballymahon Road towards Ballykeeran and Glasson. Residents in these areas had their water supply shut off from (approximately) midnight on Saturday, Sunday and Monday until 8 or 9am the following mornings. Barry Lennon, Executive Engineer at Westmeath County Council's Athlone Area office, stated yesterday (Tuesday) that the local authority had “no choice†other than to shut off the supply on those nights following the failure of mechanical pumps at the Athlone Water Treatment Plant. Mr Lennon stated that water is typically pumped from the treatment plant to the reservoir and then back into homes in the area. At the time of going to press on Tuesday afternoon, council staff were working to resolve the mechanical problems at the treatment plant. It was hoped that the issues would be resolved by Tuesday evening but Mr Lennon said there was a possibility that another night of supply cuts would be experienced on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. However, he stated that the water supply should return to normal from today (Wednesday). “The situation is constantly being monitored and assessed. There is no problem with the quantity or quality of water, this is something that's been caused by an unforeseen problem with mechanical pumps,†he said.