'Upwards of 600 households' in Limerick city outskirts hit by water outage

A BURST water main on the outskirts of Limerick city and Clare has disrupted up to “600 households”, leaving many families without water during this festive period.

On Thursday, Irish Water received a report of a burst water main in Parteen, which caused disruptions to residents in the area and in surrounding communities.

Irish Water stated that it was making “every effort to ensure that the alternative drinking water supply provided”, and installed a standpipe at Westbury Shopping Centre on Friday evening. The utility installed a tanker/browser in the community.

“However as it is not practical to provide sterilised containers for the public to transport drinking water from the standpipe to their homes, we cannot guarantee that any containers used by the public do not negatively impact or contaminate the drinking water.”

Residents have been advised to boil all water obtained from public supplies. 

While local councillor Cathal Crowe commended the work of the crew, he has hit out at Irish Water as disruptions are common in the area, he said. 

“The network is quite vast out here. It comes on a feeder pipe from the Castletroy resevoir...it initially affected 100 local residents but as it [the network] spreads then, I suppose, upwards of 600 households—or thereabouts— were affected.”

Irish Water crews continue to work at the scene this Saturday.