Mayo families left without water for days over Christmas after pipe bursts

Twelve households in Mayo endured four days without running water over the Christmas period after a burst pipe left them without water.

The houses in Brackloon were left without water on Christmas Eve when residents discovered a leak in their group water scheme. Local volunteer Joe McGreal responded immediately to Marese McAleer's call for help, along with Gerry Walsh, despite being on his way into town.

“He came back and himself and Gerry Walsh searched everywhere to see where the leak was,” Ms McAleer said. However, their efforts were frustrated by the Christmas timing. “When they found where it was, because of Christmas Eve, they could not contact anybody in the council or anybody that would give them a machine to visit the trench and repair the leak.”

The water outage forced residents to improvise during what should have been a festive period. Ms McAleer's brother-in-law travelled from Castlebar with a trailer and container of water, while others made multiple trips to the local graveyard to fill buckets.

‘Disgraceful’
“I HAD no water for four days,” Ms McAleer said. “People were relying on going with small containers and going down to the graveyard to try and fill buckets of water. I mean, we got over it, but at the same time, it was disgraceful that there was actually nobody to come to our aid.”

Liam Forde, one of the householders affected, relied on his backup tank in the shed for essential needs, but still needed to collect drinking water from the graveyard. “I have a big tank in the shed for reserve, so it gets pumped in from that tank,” he said. “That tank was full, so I went to the graveyard for drinking water.”

The situation remained unresolved through Christmas Day, with McGreal and Walsh unable to reach the engineering firm. “Being Christmas Day, the engineering firm, they were ringing out. The office was closed, so there was nobody, there was no help. There was nobody to contact,” McGreal explained.

Relief finally came on Saturday morning when Louisburgh councillor Chris Maxwell arrived at half past nine with his own digger. Working alongside Joe and Gerry, he excavated the trench, travelled back to Louisburgh to source the necessary fittings, and completed the repair.

Joe McGreal, one of the volunteers who fixes leaks on the Brackloon

“Cllr Maxwell came at half nine in the morning," Mr Forde said. “He dug around the pipe, exposed the pipe first, and he went off, and he managed to find fitting,” McGreal added.

McGreal praised the councillor's hands-on approach. “There's a lot of councillors around, but there's very few of them kind to put their money where their mouth is. He heard about it the night before, and he showed up the next day. It's not many of them that send an email or make a phone call, and that'd be the extent of their help. Whereas he put his digger up on it. He was there at nine o'clock in the morning. He was our knight in shining armour, and got everyone up and running.”

Ms McAleer acknowledged the scheme's history while noting its age: “In all honesty, it has been a great scheme. But like a lot of things, I think it's over 40 years old.”

Cllr Chris Maxwell played down his role in it and told The Mayo News that “ all I did was go in and dig the hole. Fair play to the trustees who repaired it.”

Takeover
HE expressed his hope that Uisce Éireann will take the scheme over “as soon as possible” and that “all the legalities and the paperwork tidied up and take it over and go forward from there. In the interim, if there's anything I can do to help the people there, I won't be found wanting.”

The Brackloon Group Water Scheme is in the process of being taken over by Uisce Éireann, though the timeline remains unclear. According to Mayo County Council, “the overall timeline involved in relation to the formal Taking in Charge of any Group Water Scheme is ultimately governed and decided upon by Uisce Éireann.”

The council said that in the case of Brackloon, “there are still outstanding Wayleaves and we still await above ground Asset related documentation. A number of signed consent forms are yet to be received. There are other considerations in relation to compliance with Uisce Éireann basic standards which will have to be fully satisfied before a final submission can be lodged.”

Uisce Éireann confirmed that Mayo County Council “are in the process of gathering the necessary documentation to submit a Taking in Charge application for the Brackloon Group Water Scheme to Uisce Éireann in the near future.”

Process
THE utility explained that for any group water scheme to be taken in charge, “it must go through the appropriate Taking in Charge process. This process includes signed consent from Uisce Éireann, a completed application, and technical reports to ensure the scheme meets the Uisce Éireann basic standard requirements.”

Since the programme began in 2016, Uisce Éireann has received 50 applications for the taking in charge of public group water schemes from Mayo County Council. Of these, 42 have been formally taken in charge, four have legacy debt regarding unpaid water charges, three are under review, and one requires further information.

Mayo County Council said there are currently eight schemes lodged with Uisce Éireann for takeover purposes, some dating back to 2019, with a prospective 59 more schemes envisaged to be processed by the end of 2026.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme