Irish Water says fallout from Storm Emma to blame for Athlone outages

The spate of water outages in Athlone in recent weeks is a result of the fallout from Storm Emma, Irish Water has stated. 

The most recent interruption to supplies occurred in areas to the centre and east of the town last night (Wednesday) and into this morning. This followed a number of water outages in the same area last week, including one which lasted for more than 24 hours.  

The Westmeath Independent contacted a spokesperson for Irish Water to ask what was causing the repeated outages and for how much longer they would be occurring.

Spokesperson Clare O'Riordan responded by saying Storm Emma, and the other spells of cold weather recently, had increased the amount of water being lost through leaks in the system. 

"Consequently there is a very high demand in the distribution network which currently exceeds the quantity of water that can be produced in the water treatment plant," said Ms O'Riordan. 

"Irish Water is struggling to maintain treated water levels in the main reservoir at Annagh (in Athlone). In order to maintain supply through the day it is necessary of a frequent  but irregular basis to restrict water supply to some customers on the east side of the town and surrounding rural areas to allow water levels in the reservoir to recover."

The restrictions are only being applied when "strictly necessary" and are being timed to have the least possible impact on people. 

On the possibility of more outages, she said the situation was being reviewed "on a daily basis" and it was hoped that "inroads will be made into leakage rates" in the next week.

"Night time water restrictions are being put in place in order to ensure that there is water available for industries, commercial premises and schools during the day," she said.

The utility has hired a contractor to reduce leakage in the metered Batteries and Montree areas of town, and it said it has been in touch with individual customers "where high usage has been recorded by our metres."

Irish Water also said that Westmeath County Council was helping by "providing Irish Water with additional resources to increase the capacity to fix leaks."

"Irish Water again asks the publics assistance to conserve water. If customers are aware that they have a leak in their home or garden, Irish Water requests that the home owner fixes it without delay. 

"Irish Water also asks the public that if they notice a leak or a burst on the public watermain network, they should contact Irish Water at 1850 278 278 to report the leak," said the spokesperson. 

"Please don’t assume that Irish Water is aware of the leak. The water that can be seen on the ground may be the indication of a much larger issue under the ground." 

Athlone-area councillors were very critical of Irish Water at a meeting last week, with Cllr Paul Hogan and others hitting out at the lack of communication around water outages. 

"I think the people of this town have been treated absolutely despicably by Irish Water. It's a farce that the people of this town are being treated with such contempt," said Cllr Hogan.