Shantalla protestors block Irish Water until pipes are made safe

Shantalla residents are determined to keep water meter installations out of Shantalla by staging a protest at the Sliding Rock between 7am and 5pm every day.

A tricolour flag emblazoned with the word “Free Water” sits on top of Sliding Rock, which the approximately twenty protesters have since reclaimed as “Camp Rock.”

The arrival of contractors has resulted in huge discontent amongst locals in regards to the quality of water and pipe systems that they are expected to pay for, with lead piping being the main bone of contention amongst residents.

The camp was originally set up two weeks ago on the corner of O’Flaherty Road but was later moved several feet away due to a complaint from another resident opposing the camp.

“If people want to install meters, we let them but if they don’t then we step on the meter so they can’t be installed,” said protestor Vincent Ford.

“Irish Water claim they are not responsible for the pipes but they are responsible for the pipes leading from the mains to the water meter.”

According to the campaigners, there is an extremely high level of lead in the water supply with a number of locals having sent off samples obtained from kitchen taps to a laboratory in the city.

Many of the results presented by residents show that the lead readings from the water samples far exceed the safe limit of the parametric value of 10.

Patrick Corcoran showed his letter, with a dangerously high reading of 125, while Eamon Flaherty’s letter also showed a high reading of 70.3.

“I’m living just up the road with my 83 year old mother, I’m on 16 tablets a day and have epilepsy,” said Mr. Corcoran.

“I’m only on the dole, I only get €188, she only gets her widow’s pension because my father’s dead and, between the two of us now, we aren’t getting an awful lot and we have to pay for an awful lot.”

Instead of installing meters, there is a strong support amongst the group for a changing of the pipes leading to the houses.

“It costs €5,000 to put in new pipes from the meter to the house, but the pipes from the mains water supply to the meter are still lead, so there will still be a leak because you can’t connect plastic with lead, and the water will still have lead in it,” claimed Shantalla tradesman, Ollie Burke.