Athlone badly hit by extended water outage

An ongoing water outage in Athlone today (Wednesday) looks set to continue for 12 hours longer than originally anticipated. 

Irish Water gave notice to local media on Tuesday afternoon stating that water outages were planned in the town centre and east of the town - as far out as Mount Temple - from 8pm on Tuesday until 8am this morning. 

However, water supply in the affected areas did not return as predicted this morning - leading to huge inconvenience for homes and businesses.    

In an update this afternoon, Irish Water said the supply coming from the Annagh reservoir will start to resume from 8pm this evening, but it could be 10pm before water starts to return in all areas.  

The company said the disruption to local supplies was as being caused by "essential reservoir works."

Areas affected by the outage include Garrycastle, Dublin Road, Ardnaglug, Fardrum, Moydrum, Blyry, Killyon Hill, Retreat, Bonavalley, Athlone town and surrounding areas. 

The current outage is the latest in a series of disruptions to local water supplies in the aftermath of Storm Emma earlier this month.