‘Uisce Éireann text alert system simply isn’t working as intended’

“RESIDENTS deserve reliability and proper communication.”

A letter has been issued to Uisce Éireann to seek clarity on recent water outages and flooding in the Lucan area.

Members of the local authority have written to the national water utility after outages and flooding have occurred consistently in the last year asking for a report.

Councillor Liona O’Toole underlined the need for as much transparency from Uisce Éireann as possible in regards to the issues residents have faced in the last 12 months.

Cllr O’Toole said: “Residents have a right to know how many outages have taken place and what caused them and whether their ongoing underground works are contributing to the problem.”

The Lucan councillor noted that water outages can happen but feels that the level of occurrence in the area is too high.

She stated that, on more than one occasion, the outages Lucan has experienced were linked to civil works.

The text alert system that the national water utility operates has also been flagged as below standard.

“The Uisce Éireann text alert system simply isn’t working as intended. Many residents report receiving alerts after the stated outage time has already begun, and that completely defeats the purpose of having an alert system at all.

“If you’ve already left the house for work or you’re working from home, you need timely notice.

“Otherwise, people will return to find incidents or airlocks in their systems. They will find boiler problems or no water when they’ve had no opportunity to prepare.”

Councillor Caroline Brady noted that the increase in works across the county needs to be met with strong communication channels.

Cllr Brady recommended that a long-term plan be put in place to improve this aspect and ensure more information is shared with the public.

Cllr Brady said: “I think there is something that we need to be doing long-term to put processes in place where we can be a lot more communicative and [get] on top of issues as they arise so that we can give information and more advanced warning to people as we start to do things.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.