Parts of north Louth ‘like a third world country’ due to water outages during a heatwave
Residents in north Louth feel they are living “in a third world country” with many homes in Hackballscross and surrounding areas left without a water supply during a heatwave, according to a local councillor.
Cathaoirleach of Dundalk Municipal District, Cllr. Robert Nash called for the restoration of a cross-border water connection to provide a backup supply for customers in North Louth during unexpected outages.
“This week, one of the hottest periods of the year so far, has left customers in Hackballscross, Rassan, Shelagh and Annavacky without water for up to two days as Irish Water continues to deal with serious pumping problems, largely caused by the extreme heat.”
According to Cllr Nash, an issue at the Dunbin reservoir was not discovered for quite some time due to communication cable failures.
“It was only when customers in Hackballscross began reporting outages that the problem at Dunbin was identified and rectified,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the pumping station at Fintan Callan’s is supplied from Dunbin, and it takes several hours for water pressure to build back up before the pumps can restart. It is also my understanding that the extreme heat, combined with ventilation problems, caused pumps to overheat and that additional ventilation had to be installed,” added Cllr Nash.
“Meanwhile customers including many cattle farmers were left without water for extended periods during one of the busiest and most demanding times of the farming year.”
Cllr. Nash said he had “countless calls this week from frustrated and worried farmers who are deeply concerned about the welfare of their livestock.”
“This is the height of the farming season. Farmers are working around the clock to keep their operations going, provide for their animals, and produce the food supplies that our entire country depends on. The least they should be able to rely on is a basic water supply.”
“You wouldn’t see this in a third world country,” stated Cllr Nash. “It is simply not good enough in this day and age for families, homes and farms to be left without water for this length of time.”
While acknowledging that Irish Water did provide emergency supplies through water tankers, Cllr Nash said this was far from adequate for farmers with large numbers of cattle.
“For years there was a cross-border water connection available for situations exactly like this, and I do not believe it would take a huge amount of work to restore it,” he said.
“We already have multiple memorandums of understanding and agreements for cross-border cooperation between organisations North and South. It is clearly time for Irish Water to engage with their counterparts in Northern Ireland and put a permanent backup solution in place.”
“Clearly this is not an isolated incident. We have seen repeated outages over the past twelve months, and with rising temperatures and increasing pressure on infrastructure, this issue is not going away.”