Water rationing after ‘huge’ pipe bursts

Water rationing after ‘huge’ pipe bursts


Council severely criticised but urges public co-operation

Rowan Gallagher

PEOPLE all over the county will have to contend with a water rationing program this week after massive amounts of water have started leaking from burst pipes.
The programme  which was announced yesterday will mean that people who had to contend with frozen pipes over Christmas could now be left without water once again.
Mayo County Council has warned that people who are wasting water by leaving pipes running may be cut off entirely to preserve the little water that is left after the thaw exposed burst water mains.
Achill and Belmullet have worst hit by the bursts in pipes with reservoirs there nearing on empty as of yesterday (Tuesday).
John Condon, County Secretary, Mayo County Council stated that the programme would be coming into immediate effect with some areas having water turned off entirely for a number of hours.
“The situation is that Council workers have been out all over Christmas and are now out finding and fixing leaks. These leads have led to a huge amount of water being lost and this is a major problem. We really will need the public to co-operate and all of the county will have to have their water rationed over the next few weeks.
“We need people to turn off taps they had running over the last week and if they have a leak it needs to be fixed or they may be cut of entirely to stop them wasting the water. Water will have to be turned off all over the county at different times to let the reservoirs fill up to acceptable levels,” Mr Condon told The Mayo News.
One woman from Cloonaboy outside Swinford lost her water supply on Christmas morning and has only now received water supply back.
“We lost it on Christmas morning at around 12 before even starting dinner. And we only got it back this morning (Tuesday) at 9am. We had no water for cooking – nothing for the washing machine or anything
For the farm John (husband) has his own water supply so it didn’t freeze over – he had infrared lights on the pipes,” Evelyn McDonald, Cloonaboy told The Mayo News
Independent Castlebar Councillor Michael Kilcoyne charged Mayo County Council with failing the people of Mayo, stating that ‘senior management heads need to roll when they get back to work’.
“A good few people here in Castlebar were out of water for the whole of Christmas and now some of them have burst water mains. The mains were far too close to the surface and it is all down to a lack of planning enforcement on behalf of the County Council. The people left without water should consider suing their solicitors and architects who oversaw the planning of their homes when these pipes were put on paper.
“Next Tuesday when the council opens up again no one will lose their jobs – heads need to roll over this. If this was the private service I can guarantee that people would be losing their positions right away,” Cllr Kilcoyne stated.
“They are there to provide a service and over Christmas we had a string of problems from not having enough salt and now people having burst water mains. But no one will take responsibility and when the Council applies for its €160,000 for enforcement budget I will be opposing it,” added Cllr Kilcoyne.
Extensive issues were seen in Erris where many people were left without water for the whole holiday period.
Sine Féin Cllr Rose ConwayWalsh said that the pipes laid were far too close to the surface and that investment was the only way to solve the issue in time for the next cold spell.
“There are huge problems with water here. Some people were even out of water all Christmas and still haven’t been reconnected.  Castlebar seems to have been the worst hit but it is hard to quantify. Pipes are bursting all around the county
“The pipes are not fit for purpose and investment into the infrastructure is needed. The Council or the contractors need to be held accountable. We need to be much better prepared for this in the future. I have been trying to get through to the Council all year and they need to tackle these issues now,” Cllr Walsh concluded.