Tipperary families store rainwater as town would run out of water in two days without restrictions
Water infrastructure in one part of Tipperary is like living in the third world, according to one local man.
Jason Devlin lives just outside Tipperary town, and recently set up the Tipperary Town Water Crisis Action Group in response to the many water outages in the area over the last number of years.
Over the last three years since Jason started keeping track of water outages in his area, parts of the town have been without water for almost 30 full days.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Devlin said that he started the group to demand answers and to hold Uisce Éireann to account.
"I figured that we’re not the only people impacted by this, so more out of desperation, because we’ve made complaints, we’ve reported outages, we’ve done everything we possibly can to try and fix it, and we’re just getting nowhere with it,” he explained.
"There’s no real feedback from Uisce Éireann, there’s no resolution, it’s usually just an agent on the phone who says ‘sorry to hear you’re having a problem’ and then they take it down, but we’ve tried our best to mitigate it through Uisce Éireann, and we’ve put in complaints, and we have heard back but it’s usually just placating saying ‘it’s an infrastructure problem’,” he said.
“So I set up the group, but at the same time I actually reported it again to Uisce Éireann, and I put in an official complaint through Seamus Healy, the TD, and when we put in the complaints we both got the exact same response saying they’re aware of issues in the area.”
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Mr Devlin said that Uisce Éireann have said that they plan on upgrading six kilometres of old pipe in the area, but he has his doubts that this will fix the issues he’s been experiencing.
"I don’t think that it’s acceptable because I cannot see six kilometres of piping solving the widespread issue that we’re having here,” he said.
Members of Mr Devlin’s group on Facebook raised concerns that water pressure in parts of Tipperary town was reduced at night time, with no consultation.
"Recently we received notification from local Sinn Féin councillor Annemarie Ryan that they have to reduce the flow at night time, and that’s something that was only discovered after setting up the group.
"A lot of people were reporting that at night time from the hours of 10pm and 6am in the morning that their water was reduced down to a trickle, and some of them get no water out of the tap at all,” Mr Devlin explained.
"After complaints in the group, Uisce Éireann said they’re doing this because there’s so many leaks in the area that if they left it on at full pressure at night, the reservoirs would be empty in two days.”
Calling for answers from the water company, Mr Devlin said that people in the area know there are issues with infrastructure, but all they want are answers.
"What we really want is for Uisce Éireann to come back to us and say ‘we understand you’re in a situation here, and here’s what we’re going to do to fix it’,” he said.
"We don’t want to be placated, we want to be told that they’ll do something about it, but nothing ever gets done.
"It’s third world carry on, we’re living in the first world but we’re living with third world amenities,” Mr Devlin hit out.
The constant outages have made Mr Devlin and his family resort to extreme measures to be able to have water in their home.
"We collect our own rainwater into large tanks here, and we use that to water animals, we’ve got a small holding.
"We also set up an outside shower as well, which runs off a battery operated pump, and we keep water in storage for drinking and also water for flushing toilets as well,” he explained.
"We’ve just gotten tired of it now, we can’t continue on the way we’re going and just put up with it,” he added.
At the December meeting of the Tipperary-Cahir-Cashel Municipal District, Sinn Féin councillor Annemarie Ryan asked how the town was supposed to grow with such significant infrastructure issues.
"Uisce Éireann are saying if they didn’t have night time restrictions, the town would be without water in two days, but we need to work with Uisce Éireann on this,” she said.
"So what hope do we have of any development in Tipperary town?” the Sinn Féin councillor asked.
Despite there being night time restrictions on water in the town on a regular basis, there is no information on the Uisce Éireann website to keep customers up to date.
"It’s an outrageous situation that we find ourselves in, they’re talking about fixing leaks, but we have a huge, massive leak on the Main Street and a pothole, which I’ve raised and we’ve all raised numerous times in the last few weeks, and the road is sinking down there,” Cllr Ryan added.
It is understood that Uisce Éireann crews were due on site to address the leak on the town’s Main Street following the December meeting.
In response to the issues raised, Uisce Éireann said that they were responding to a number of infrastructure issues in the area, and that night time restrictions were necessary to ensure the town had enough water to meet demand.
"Uisce Éireann has undertaken a targeted, strategic approach in responding to a number of challenges across the water network in Tipperary town. This includes the deployment of additional crews in the town to detect underground leaks and complete repairs in order to limit the impact on customers.”
Pointing to the age of the water network in the town, the company said that old pipes were having a significant impact on the amount of water outages in the area.
"Several major leaks were repaired as a result throughout the course of this year. Areas of the water network are aged and susceptible to bursts and leaks and Uisce Éireann acknowledge the impact to customers when supply is interrupted.
"Crews work as quickly as possible to restore supply following outages and incidents,” they added.
Despite night time restrictions being in place for a number of months, the utility couldn’t give any timeframe as to when the restrictions in the town would be lifted.
"Uisce Éireann continue to monitor supply closely across Tipperary town and have instituted a number of measures in response to low water levels at Cordangan Reservoir supplying the town, which is caused by demand exceeding available supply,” they explained.
"Night time restrictions are deployed in order to safeguard daytime supply for residents and businesses and Uisce Éireann has also installed a control valve at a strategically significant point on the network, which reduces the likelihood of bursts and provides better control of the network.
"This allows reservoirs to recover overnight at a time when demand is typically lower and the impact on customers is significantly less. This measure is part of ongoing efforts to reduce disruption on the network,” Uisce Éireann said.
"We appreciate the cooperation, patience and support shown by the local community as we work together to manage the ongoing challenges,” the utility concluded.