Water result at last for villagers

The days of harvesting rainwater to accommodate basic needs will soon come to an end for an East Galway community after they were finally provided with the ‘luxury’ of a running supply.

Villagers in Kilrickle – between Loughrea and Ballinasloe – have been campaigning for more than four decades for a water supply but without success.

However, following an arrangement with their neighbouring Cappataggle Group Water Scheme a supply can finally be facilitated – and Galway County Council are also supportive of this initiative.

For years, the residents of Kilrickle were told that they would be connected to the larger Loughrea water scheme but this simply did not happen.

It would have involved the provision of a four mile mains out to the village and no funding was put in place for such an initiative.

Instead, they turned their attention to the neighbouring Cappataggle Group Water Scheme whose members told them that they could be accommodated.

Kilrickle publican and water campaigner Dessie O’Brien is “over the moon” that more than 200 residents, businesses and farmers can be finally accommodated with fresh running water.

And he paid tribute to those involved in the Cappataggle Water Scheme for coming to their rescue with the village having had “one promise after another” broken by successive Governments.

“There are people in Kilrickle who still don’t believe it. That is not hard to understand as they have had to get used to so many broken promises in the past.

“But this is now a different situation in that we have been promised a connection to an existing scheme unlike before when we were guaranteed a supply from Loughrea that just didn’t exist,” Dessie said.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.