No guarantee Coosan water disruption at an end
by Deirdre Verney Updated: Friday, 16th December, 2011 3:15pm
Special council meeting held after weekend water havoc
The council has said it cannot give any guarantees that the water disruption experienced in the Coosan area over the last fortnight is at an end, but they are hopeful water outtages will only last a few hours and be localised to certain estates in the run-up to Christmas.
Senior Executive Engineer, Morgan Cox told special meeting of Athlone Town Council on Tuesday, called in light of widespread problems for residents with no water at all over last weekend, that the asbetos pipeline is 35 years old and doesn't react well to shut-offs. He said that they are very hopeful that work on the rising main which supplies the reservoir will be completed by December 22. The new system will not be fully commissioned until mid-January.
However, he could give no guarantees that there will not be further bursts in the area given the nature and age of the pipes. No further planned shutoffs are envisaged, Mr Cox continued but there will a number of small scale outtages, lasting several hours in a number of local estates as part of branch connections to the rising water main. This will happen in various parts of Meehanquarter on December 16 and 19.
There was anger from all councillors at the meeting at lack of information available to the public in relation to planned stoppages and bursts which caused widespread havoc in the Coosan area last weekend. Cllr Gabrielle McFadden said people in Coosan have endured a terrible two weeks and her concern now is that work on the mains will go right up to December 22 and something could go wrong and leave people without water for Christmas. She asked if the work could be postponed or fast-tracked so that becomes less of a possibility.
Expressing disatisfaction with the council communications over the weekend, Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran said he too was worried about work underway until December 22. He asked if there is anyway that work on the rising water main can be sped up to be done by December 19, something the council said they would look into with the contractor. The council rejected the idea of postponing the work, given how important it is that the system is upgraded. They promised to improve communications with the message boards and website updated more regularly.
Apologising profusely for the weekend disruption, Director of Services Barry Kehoe said he would sleep a lot easier if the work to the rising mains was completed by December 22. Recommending that it goes ahead and not be postponed, he stated that work would give them a good chance of keeping the supply over Christmas.
"I know the distribution mains will not be done by then but the rising mains is the main problem," he stressed, adding that the council will learn lessons from last weekend and get the message out to the public as quickly and accurately as possible.
For a full report see this week's Westmeath Independent.
