New drinking water supply could be two years off

It"s likely to be some two years before work starts on providing a new source of water to a whole swathe of South Westmeath. Westmeath County Council is awaiting confirmation for the €100m South Westmeath Water Scheme abstraction order from An Bord Pleanála. The planning board is expected to confirm the abstraction order within the next month. Once An Bord Pleanála confirms the order, Westmeath County Council will then prepare a brief and desgin estimate for approval from the Department of the Environment before the project goes out to tender. It is expected it will be about 12 or 18 months before the project goes to tender. The South Westmeath Water Scheme will see Westmeath County Council extract 9m gallons of water a day from Lough Ree at Killinure to supply the south Westmeath area. A pumphouse will be built in the Wineport area near the lake shore and water will be pumped from here through a rising main to a new treatment works. Most of the water will then be pumped from the treatment works to the existing storage reservoir at Annagh. This currently supplies Athlone town. Another pipeline will pump water from the treatment works to a new reservoir at Carraun Hill in Glasson and this will supply the Glasson/Tgang area. From the reservoir at Annagh a trunk main will pump water to a new reservoir at Knockdomney near Moate via a booster station at Bealin Cross. This reservoir will supply Moate and the surrounding rural areas. It will also feed on to a new regional reservoir at Coolatore, again via the booster station to the east of Moate. The Coolatore reservoir will provide storage for a large rural area currently supplied in part from the existing Mullingar Regional Water Supply Scheme.