Water conservation orders lifted

Irish Water has confirmed that the remaining Water Conservation Orders affecting several counties including Westmeath have now been lifted.

The other counties affected were Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Laois, Offaly, Wicklow, Meath, Louth and Dublin.

The Irish Water Board met and reviewed the data that indicates that the reduction in demand, the availability of water resources and the prevailing weather conditions mean that the justification for the Water Conservation Order no longer applies.

In August, significant rain fell in the North and Western Regions, replenishing water sources in those areas to the extent that the specific usage prohibitions were lifted. However, at this time supplies in the Southern, Eastern and Midlands regions had not recovered and a new Water Conservation Order to cover the public water supplies in counties Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Laois, Offaly, Wicklow, Meath, Westmeath, Louth and Dublin, was issued. The order took effect on September 1 and was due to conclude at midnight on September 30.

However, increased rainfall has meant that the Water Conservation Orders can be lifted now. Rainfall rates have returned or are returning to average rates for the time of year at all observational stations in the Southern, Eastern and Midlands regions.

Commenting on the lifting of the Water Conservation Orders, Irish Water’s Engineering expert Kate Gannon said:

“The Water Conservation Orders were vital for reducing significant peaks in demand that Irish Water witnessed in early June 2018. The orders, combined with the excellent conservation efforts made by homes and businesses across the country prevented major outages to water supplies in many communities. As rainfall is returning to more average rates, our water sources which were very dry during the summer can recharge more quickly.

“In the Greater Dublin Area, where we were very concerned about the levels in the Poulaphuca reservoir, the rate of decline has decreased significantly and the probability of an outage is now very low. Levels at the Inniscarra dam in Cork, Lough Guitane in Kerry and Lough Owel in Mullingar have all stablised and are recovering.

“While this is very welcome news, it is essential that people continue to conserve water. We are really grateful for all the efforts people made over the past few months in their homes and businesses. It was really encouraging to see. Conserving water will make our water sources more resilient and help to safeguard our water for the future benefiting communities all across the country.”