David Clarke impressed for Ballina Stephenites in their Mayo GAA Senior Club Football Championship final against Westport in MacHale Park, Castlebar. Pic: Sportsfile
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22 Oct 2025
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22 Oct 2025
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Achill Island, where residents in certain areas were left without water for four days recently
PARTS of Achill Island were recently left without water for four days.
Local county councillor Paul McNamara called for a bigger reservoir to be installed on the island following a recent outage which affected several areas.
The outage occurred because of two bursts at a water treatment plant which depleted the local reservoir within hours.
Acknowledging works that have already taken place to upgrade the water system on the island, Cllr McNamara said that 24 hours of storage were required at a new reservoir.
The proposed new reservoir would store approximately 370 cubic metres of water which, according to Cllr McNamara, would add two hours of storage to the site.
“What we will end up with is about six hours of storage. Now most of our neighbouring hinterlands, in Erris and Belmullet and those area, have 24 hours storage on site. That’s the problem we face in Achill,” Cllr McNamara told the December meeting of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District.
“The proposed reservoir which has been put on site, in my opinion, is not fit for purpose. It’s not going to solve the problem,” Cllr McNamara the December meeting of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District.
Earlier this year, Irish Water undertook works on Achill Water Supply Scheme which included the replacement underground. Works were also completed to reduce leaks in several district meter areas within the island, which reduced daily production by up to 300,000 litres per day to date.
Cllr McNamara warned that the island would face ‘a serious, serious problem’ if such an outage were to occur during August when the population of the island grows to approximately 10,000.
“Since last August some areas, every two weeks, have been out of water for up to two or three days,” he added.
Padraic Walsh, Head of the Westport-Belmullet Municipal District, said that the situation in Achill was ‘a little complex because all of the reservoirs are in series’.
Mr Walsh said he would contact the relevant authorities and ensure that Cllr McNamara’s concerns were relayed.
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