Parts of city may face weekend water cuts

Date Published: 28-Apr-2011

By Bernie Ní Fhlatharta

Water restrictions may be introduced over the Bank Holiday weekend which could affect householders in the western part of the city.

Galway County Council will decide today whether they need to introduce the same water restrictions they had in place after Christmas – which affected houses between the Western Distributor Road and Moycullen.

The restrictions were in place last night so that engineers could get a proper reading this morning of water levels at the Tonabrocky reservoir. The result will decide whether water restrictions will continue over the weekend.

A spokesman for the County Council’s water services said that a “fairly significant increase in the demand for water has been noticed at Tonabrocky” and that they had to address this immediately.

He said that the demand in the area had increased recently by up to 600 cubic metres a day – enough to supply 1,000 houses using about 140 gallons of water a day.

Restrictions mean that water from the Tonabrocky reservoir will be turned off at 10pm and not switched on again until 6am.

And though this is not news that will be welcomed by local householders who have experienced regular water shortages in recent years, €2 million has been approved to build a new reservoir at Tonabrocky which will put an end to local water restrictions.

The new reservoir will service some of the western suburbs which have been most affected by cuts in recent months as demand on the existing facility has been stretched to bursting point.

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