Water charges stink as people ‘afraid to flush toilets’

Water charges stink as people are afraid to flush toilets - councillor


Fears over water charges leads to passing of provision for private wells

Edwin McGreal

People are so afraid of water charges that they are afraid to flush their toilets. That was the odious scenario outlined by Cllr Jimmy Maloney speaking during a discussion on provisions for water wells in the Mayo County Development Plan 2014-2020.
“It has come to the time where people are afraid to flush the toilet because of the bills,” said Cllr Maloney. “I’m on a group water scheme and there are bills of €1,500 and people are afraid to flush the toilet,” he added.
Mayo County Council passed a provision to allow ‘single rural houses to use wells as a water supply’. The initial wording from the executive had read ‘in exceptional circumstances, single rural houses may be permitted to use wells as a water supply’.
These ‘exceptional circumstances’ were that such houses were in places where there is no public water supply or public/private group water scheme in the area. However, the provision for ‘exceptional circumstances’ was removed by councillors.
Cllr Al McDonnell told the meeting that such a motion would not lead to a huge amount of people putting in a private well as this ‘can be a costly exercise’.
Cllr Maloney said the council were ‘trying to stop people boring their own wells’. The provision recommended by councillors was passed.