Councillor slams Irish Water saying it’s ‘not fit for purpose’
A COUNCILLOR has claimed that Irish Water is “not fit for purpose” after some Bohernabreena and Glenasmole residents were left without water for four days after the thunderstorm last week.
According to local independent councillor Alan Edge, the water outage was caused by a reported lighting strike to a water pumping facility that serves the area.
Scores of residents were without water from last Tuesday, May 9, until the following Friday, May 12, when the water service was restored.
Cllr Edge, who represents Firhouse-Bohernabreena, said: “The situation is unacceptable. Residents in this area are sick of being treated in this way.
“This isn’t the first outage of such length, but it must be the last.
“The communication from Irish Water has been lamentable, with residents being told first that the water will be restored by the next day, then the next, then the next and so on.
“The negative impact on people’s lives is intolerable. The fact is that Irish Water is not fit for purpose.
“The mission statement of the newly rebranded Uisce Éireann is ‘delivering clean, safe and reliable national public drinking water and wastewater services for Ireland’ and in that mission they are failing entirely.”
Cllr Edge added that there is a Service Level Agreement with staff from South Dublin County Council who are very responsive, but the infrastructure is inadequate and needs to be updated by Irish Water.
“Residents are extremely nervous about it happening again,” Cllr Edge told The Echo.
“This, coupled with an increasing number of power outages which can also lead to water outages owing to the pumping system, is making life increasingly difficult for residents of rural South Dublin.
“The issue here is that better infrastructure is needed so these problems don’t keep arising in future.”
The Echo contacted Irish Water on Tuesday evening last (May 16) and asked what action they planned to take to prevent outages occurring again.
In response, a spokeswoman for Irish Water forwarded a press release that had been issued the previous Tuesday, May 9.
According to the press release, Irish Water was working with the council to restore water supply “as quickly as possible” and gave details about an alternative water supply available at St Anne’s Church.
For full access to all content on Echo.ie and to support the continuation of local news and local journalism in your community subscribe HERE. Thanks for your ongoing support.
