New reservoir set to solve Galway’s water woes

Date Published: 11-Aug-2011

BY FRANK FARRAGHER

Construction of the new €2 million reservoir at Tonabrocky – regarded as critical to solving the ongoing water shortage problems on the western fringe of the city – will get underway next year, the Galway City Tribune has learned.

Although it does seem like ‘full steam ahead’ for the project – despite the difficult economic outlook – it will take several months to go through the planning, preparation of contract documents and tendering process for the reservoir.

This week, Galway County Council – the local authority in charge of constructing the new reservoir – set in train the final part of the planning process for the 4,320 cubic metre Tonabrocky facility.

They have published, what is termed a Part 8 Planning Notice, inviting submissions from the public on the project between now and September 22 next.

The Galway City Tribune has learned that the new reservoir – regarded as a critical piece of infrastructure in guaranteeing a reliable water supply to large chunks of the western fringe of the city – should get final approval at the monthly October meeting of Galway County Council.

After that, the project will then have to be put through the tendering process which could be completed early in the New Year, leading to the appointment of a contractor by late Spring.

Local councillor, Donal Lyons, said this week that he wanted everything possible to be done to expedite work on the new reservoir which would be massively beneficial in terms of ‘at last sorting out’ the problem of water outages in western parts of the city.

“I would certainly hope that work on the construction of the new reservoir would start by early next Summer,” said Cllr. Lyons.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.