Work to begin on water connection to Ayle and Cushin

Anton McNulty

Work on connecting close to 200 households in two group water schemes near Westport to the Lough Mask Water Supply is due to begin in January.
The Ayle and Cushin Group Water Schemes are due to be connected to the main water supply from Lough Mask, ten years after the local authority first agreed to upgrade and takeover the two schemes.
The tender for the €800,000 project to connect the two schemes to the Lough Mask water supply was recently signed and work on the project is expected to begin next month. It is envisaged that the work will be completed by the middle of the summer.
The neighbouring schemes which are located outside Westport had supplied water to close to 200 houses but they both found themselves in limbo after the quality of the current water supply did not comply to the drinking water regulations.
The Ayle Group Water Scheme was founded in the 1970s and was originally designed to cater for 20 homes but now supplies up to 70 houses and both schemes have had to endure continuous boil water notices.
In 2006, the two neighbouring schemes reached an agreement with Mayo County Council to allow the local authority to upgrade and takeover the schemes. However, this did not materalise and there was stalemate until the end of 2014 when Irish Water agreed to takeover the scheme and connect the houses to the Lough Mask water supply.

Welcome
The news that work on the connection was due to proceed was welcomed by Independent Westport-based councillor Christy Hyland who said residents of the two schemes have been waiting a long time to be connected.
“I welcome the fact that the people of Cushin and Ayle will finally find themselves with water of a better quality. The contractor is moving in in January and hopefully will be out in the summer. At times the water quality in the two areas has been questionable and people had to go into Westport to get their whites washed in the launderettes.
“Once the issues were brought to my attention, I have worked tirelessly to ensure the people of Cushin and Ayle got the water quality they deserve. I have also to pay tribute to the people who have been in charge of the two group water schemes for the hard work they have done up to now,” Cllr Hyland said.
The two group schemes are expected to act as agents for Irish Water in the short term before they are eventually taken over by Irish Water.