The Mayo News

Residents of the village of Shrule have been expected to drink dark and dirty water for years.


Would you drink this water?

Claire Egan

DARK, dirty and undrinkable – this is the water residents of the south Mayo village of Shrule have been expected to drink for the past numbers of years as they await water upgrade works by Mayo County Council.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Shrule resident Mrs Pam Corbett – who sent a sample bottle of her tap water (pictured) to this paper – said that residents of Shrule and the surrounding areas have been blighted by appalling water quality for a long time.
Commercial and agricultural businesses have been adversely affected, while many households have been forced to use bottled water and install purification systems.
“We are part of the Kinlough Group Water Scheme, located two miles from Shrule, which serves approximately 20 to 30 houses. Every year, the pipes serving the houses are cleaned resulting in extra dirt and silt coming through the household taps. Not only that, but chlorine is also added at a later stage resulting in an extreme white substance coming through the water. The water is impossible to drink and must be boiled at all times. It is of terrible quality throughout the year and gets particularly bad when the pipes are cleaned. It is absolutely disgusting to think of washing or using the water for household tasks. We use bottled spring water the majority of the time,” explained Pam.
Another resident of the village of Shrule also confirmed that the water supply serving local households and businesses in the area is of extremely poor quality.
Pam’s husband John, a retired farmer, is a trustee of the Kinlough GWS. They claim that, in spite of subscriptions being paid annually by members of the scheme and in spite of ongoing questioning of the Council on the matter, no improvements have been forthcoming.
“There are over 20 to 30 houses signed up to the scheme and really the role of the trustee is simply to collect the money for the water supply subscription. We have never been notified as to when cleaning works will be carried out on the system or what is happening as regards the water supply or quality.
“Residents are extremely reluctant to pay water fees because the quality is so bad. We have made efforts to tell the Council but it has fallen on deaf ears,” said Mrs Corbett.
Mr John Condon, County Secretary, acknowledged that serious issues exist over the Shrule water scheme, but claimed concerns centred on the ‘quantity’ as opposed to the ‘quality’ of the water. However, he did concede that a ‘boil alert’ notice had been placed on the Shrule Public Water Supply in the past due to quality issues. Mr Condon was unable to specify the dates of the notices.
“The Shrule water scheme has been a problem. The reality of the matter is that the source of the water scheme was completely inadequate and has been for a long time. We have been working on trying to establish a solution to the problem.
“In the last number of years, there has been an increase in the quantity of water used for domestic purposes while there has also been a boom in housing in the area resulting in huge pressure on the existing water source,” said Mr Condon.
Mr Condon also said the establishment of a water supply link between Tuam and Shrule has been identified as a solution to the problem.
Councillors voted at yesterday’s (Monday) Council meeting to approve a formal legal agreement between Mayo County Council and Galway County Council to include Shrule water scheme under the new Tuam Regional Water Supply (Tuam RWS), currently under construction by Galway County Council.
No dates for the commencement or completion of works for the connection of Shrule Public Water Supply Scheme to the Tuam RWS were provided by Mayo County Council.
According to Cllr Patsy O’Brien, Mayo County Council need to act expeditiously in order to rectify a problem, which, he claims, has been running for the last 20 years.
“Mayo County Council need to tackle this problem quickly. We raised the matter with them when I was involved with the IFA in 2002 and it was raised prior to that as well. Approval has been given to tie the Shrule scheme in with Tuam and then we have to wait and see what times and date will be given for the commencement and completion of works. I would say though that they need to act fast and get the matter sorted,” said Cllr O’Brien.
Five group schemes – Brodullagh, Dalgan, Gurteen, Cahermaculick and Kinlough – are affected, in addition to the Shrule village scheme.

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