Water network upgrade to prevent future shortage crux

Date Published: 10-Jan-2011

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

A planned upgrade of the city’s water network should prevent a repeat of the kind of shortages which saw thousands go without supplies over the holiday period, city householders were assured yesterday.

As restrictions were lifted in parts of the east side over the weekend, the City Council is to undertake a review of the difficulties experienced in providing supplies to households over the Christmas and New Year.

Some houses were left without a supply for up to 12 days following the spate of cold weather and outrage was expressed that some people were continuing to use car wash services while others had to cope with restrictions due to the drought and burst pipes.

Director of Services Ciaran Hayes said yesterday that measures were being put in place to upgrade the city’s entire water network, which would ensure no repeat of the difficulties experienced during the holidays.

He said that a water conservation project, which began last year, would be extended throughout the city in 2011 in order to give the City Council quicker access to information about problem areas across the network.

“This project, which will map the entire city water network, will give us far more information about the network and problems which may occur,” said Mr. Hayes.

“It involves dividing the network into separate districts or areas so that if there is a problem in Old Mervue, for example, the information can be relayed quickly to the Terryland Water Works.

“With the upgrading of Terryland in the last 18 months we have had the capacity to produce more water, but the scale of what we had to deal with over the past six weeks was unprecedented. Prior to the recent spate of cold weather, we were already working on building a network that was fit for purpose.”

Mr. Hayes said he was confident that the city would be better able to cope if there was a repeat of the recent spell of unprecedented cold weather in the future, thanks to the on-going water conservation and mains rehabilitation projects.

“This is a national issue and not just a Galway issue. There has been an under investment in the renewal of the water network nationally and the severe weather of recent weeks has highlighted this, but we have been allocated funds for these improvement projects,” he added.

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