‘Intolerable situation’ at an end as water supply returns to Limerick areas
UISCE Éireann (UE) has confirmed that difficulties which were encountered during scheduled maintenance works left a number of Limerick communities without water for just under six days.
Residents of Ballyhahill, Loughill, and Shanagolden woke up on the morning after Halloween to discover that their water supply had been switched off.
Residents claim that they received “no notice” from Uisce Eireann ahead of the scheduled reservoir maintenance works and had to seek information about the outage on the utility’s website.
In an open letter, penned by Shanagolden resident Elizabeth Cribbin, the outage was described as an “intolerable situation”.
“While no prior notice was given, we braced ourselves for a 24-hour inconvenience, a challenge heightened by the unfortunate timing with outbreaks of stomach flu, Covid-19, and the everyday needs of our elderly and infirm,” Ms Cribbin said.
“Our concern deepened as 24 hours stretched into 72, and still our taps remained dry. The revised completion time has been pushed further with each visit to your website,” she added.
The water supply was not fully restored to the Shanagolden and surrounding areas until Monday afternoon.
A spokesperson for UE said they regret the inconvenience this has caused the community.
“As part of regular scheduled maintenance, the reservoir at Shanagolden was cleaned last week in line with best practice. This necessitated an interruption to supply to allow the works to proceed and for refilling afterwards which was notified in the UE outages page,” they said.
Ms Cribbin said the sighs of relief after the supply was restored were “short-lived” due to a new set of challenges arising from the prolonged outage.
These, she said, included airlocks, malfunctioning ball cocks, and tripped pumps.
“The absence of clear communication exacerbates our community's challenges. We understand that infrastructure issues can be complex and that solutions may take time. However, communication should not. A robust communication plan is essential for keeping affected residents informed and prepared,” Ms Cribbin told the Limerick Leader.