Businesses in Tipperary hit hard by repeated water outages
Unplanned water outages are a “huge hit” to Tipperary businesses, with one local restaurant having lost five trading days so far this year due to having no water.
Darren Connor who runs The Carvery Restaurant in Tipperary town says that a massive amount of food waste can result from unplanned water outages, which can particularly hurt at a time when businesses are struggling to keep their doors open.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Connor said that finding out that they have no water in the morning means operations have to shut down.
"Our chefs can’t start cooking, they can’t turn on ovens because they take an influx of water first thing in the morning when you turn them on, coffee machines as well, stuff like that, so if there is no water, operation stops straight away,” he said.
"There’s no cleaning facilities, so it’s pointless starting, so then we make phone calls, see how long it’s going to be gone, wait around, if it’s going to be too late, we just call it and stop for the day”.
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The Tipperary town restaurant has lost five days of trading so far this year because of unexpected water outages, which, coupled with rising costs in the industry, has made things difficult for businesses.
"Rising costs in the restaurant sector has been a nuisance for everybody, and we’re no different to anyone else, we’re lucky enough we’re busy enough as it is, but this year alone we’ve lost five full days with no water, so that’s tough on top of everything else” Mr Conor explained.
Cashel water supply ‘not fit for purpose’
Tipperary town hasn’t been the only area of the county affected by persistent water outages, with nearby Cashel also being plagued by water disruptions throughout the summer.
Local independent councillor Liam Browne said that every bank holiday weekend in the town, at least one area had been impacted by a lack of water, with the town’s water supply being branded as “not fit for purpose”.
"The water system in Cashel is not fit for purpose, it’s that simple, the investment that should’ve gone into the system hasn’t gone into the system while the town has expanded,” he said.
"Before any planning permission should’ve been given for any new estates, they should have invested into the water infrastructure, it wasn’t done, and now you’re having these issues,” the independent councillor said.
"In recent weeks, I have had situations where I was given a heads up by the contractors that they were going to shut off the water at a certain time, maybe 11 o’clock at night and they’ll work through the night from 11 to five, and then they turn the water off at 6 o’clock in the evening, so people can’t wash coming in from work, they can’t use washing machines, and you can’t use businesses,” Cllr Browne said.
"Every single long weekend this year, water has been gone somewhere in my electoral district, it’s either gone in Cashel, it’s gone in Knockavilla, it’s gone in Boherlahan, it’s gone in Cappawhite, it’s gone in Rosegreen, but it’s gone somewhere every single bank holiday weekend, which leaves you without water for four days in a row,” he added.
Communication with Uisce Éireann leaves a lot to be desired, Cllr Browne added, saying that after 5pm in the evening, you get put through to a call centre.
"They find it very hard to understand some of the place names of the places that we tell them that water is gone. If we tell them water is gone in an area, they’re looking for an Eircode, but we’re trying to explain to them that it’s a whole area that’s gone, not just one particular house,” he said.
Cllr Browne isn’t the only one to raise issues with communication with Uisce Éireann, with Mr Connor also saying that it can be hard to get information about when water is due to return.
"We ring them and log the faults, and usually within seven to ten days, they come back and say ‘oh yeah, there was a fault on that day’, so we ring local councillors and stuff now, they’ve been great the last few years,” he said.
"The correspondence is the hardest point, we had issues where one of our machines broke and I contacted Uisce Éireann saying that one of the elements had burnt out of our dishwasher because the water had been switched off, and they came back and said ‘can you prove it?’, so I sent them on the bills, and then they asked ‘where’s the loss of earnings?’ and then correspondence broke down,” he said.
Issues with communication from Uisce Éireann was also mentioned by Carrick-on-Suir councillor David Dunne, who said that communication from the utility is “terrible”.
"Communication is terrible. Uisce Éireann rang me about a week ago saying that they’re trialing a new text alert scheme for local representatives, so we’ll get notified of all the outages within the area, but what’s happening is people are signing up to the text alerts, they’re getting a text, I’m getting an email, but my email is contradicting what people are after seeing on Facebook, so now you have confusion,” he said.
Carrick-on-Suir has seen a number of water outages throughout the summer, but thankfully, Cllr Dunne said, the main business heart of the town hasn’t been affected this time around.
“Outages affecting the town centre, luckily enough, not too many, we had a number a few years ago that affected businesses on New Street, but other than that, businesses around Carrick have been okay, except the creche at Greenhill Village, which is constantly affected,” Cllr Dunne said.
During a major outage in the past, a nursing home in the area had to call out the fire brigade to refill their tanks, the Sinn Féin councillor added.
The bigger issue in the Carrick-on-Suir area, Cllr Dunne said, is wastewater.
“The local dentist rang me last week, the smell comes back up through the pipes every three months, and that has to be cleaned by the council, or by Uisce Éireann, sometimes they have a private contractor that does it,” Cllr Dunne explained.
"Some of these issues are caused by tenants themselves, but others are caused by the pipes, and I have constantly asked Uisce Éireann to come and do a camera survey of the pipes to make sure that everything is okay,” he added.
Tipperary has had ongoing water outages this summer. Photo: Getty
Carrick-on-Suir isn’t the only area of Tipperary that has issues with wastewater, in the north of the county, wastewater treatment plants have run out of capacity for new connections, meaning no new homes can be built in the area.
Speaking to the Irish Independent previously, Nenagh councillor Joe Hannigan said he was aware of a number of housing developments that have now been stalled at various stages because they can’t get connected to wastewater treatment plants.
"In some villages, there’s no capacity left, like Cloughjordan, you can’t build a house in Cloughjordan at the minute because the wastewater treatment plant is at capacity, Ballycommon is the same way, Silvermines is the same way, and a lot of them are nearly at capacity as well,” Cllr Hannigan explained.
In the last number of months, a major upgrade of the Nenagh wastewater treatment plant has been announced, at a cost of €23million. This will enable new connections to the plant in the north Tipperary town, which is at capacity, and allow for the town to further grow and expand.
"It’s great that Nenagh got the planning permission and we welcome the investment of €23million into Nenagh, but we’re saying that if the other villages don’t get investment in their plants, we can’t build in those villages.
We’re at the end of the line out here
Back in Tipperary town, Darren Connor said that since they’re at the end of the water line in the town, if the water goes in the main part of the town, they get hit as well.
"We’re at the end of the line out here, that’s what they told me a few years ago, so if there’s a problem down the town, more than likely, we’re cut off,” he said.
"It’s not been as bad, we only lost five days this year, which is not too bad compared to other years. Luckily enough, we haven’t had any burst pipes on this road for a while, they’ve mainly been down the town where a lot of old pipes are still down there, and they need an upgrade”.
Uisce Éireann have been contacted for comment, but no response was received at the time of publication.