Emly loses water supply during President's visit
Four South Tipperary villages temporarily lost their water supply in the past two weeks due to burst water mains and the breakdown hit Emly on the day President Mary McAleese visited.
Emly's water supply was cut off for part of last Saturday when the President paid a visit the national Tidy Towns award winning village but Council workers got the supply restored to the village and surrounding areas by the afternoon.
Residents and businesses in Mullinahone, Cloneen and Drangan and their hinterlands suffered a more lengthy water supply cut off the previous weekend that lasted 48 hours in some areas
The water supply breakdowns were highlighted at this week's meeting of South Tipperary Co. Council.
Some councillors voiced concern that the Council's Water Services Department is under-resourced and called for funding to be prioritised within the Council to water supply repairs.
Cllr Denis Leahy from Tipperary Town told council management that water supply cuts offs were becoming a monthly problem in Emly.
He called for something to be done to resolve the problem that was going on for years and years.
Cllr Jimmy O'Brien said the 48 hour water supply breakdown in Mullinahone, Cloneen and Drangan was unacceptable and demanded that this never be allowed happen again.
He highlighted that it was particularly embarrassing for the residents of Mullinahone as a blitz competition attended by 700 people from all over the country was hosted in the village that weekend.
Families hosting children taking part in the blitz were left without water and he received a report of people going down to the Anner River to wash themselves.
Cllr Tom Acheson asked Council management if the water services section was under resourced. Leaks were happening all over the county and it seemed to take some time before they were repaired by the Council, he said.
"Is there any way we can prioritise those leaks and set up some situation where water services are better resourced. It's extremely difficult to explain to people why the Council can't get to a leak in a week or two and at the same time the Council wants water conservation," he said.
John Fogarty of the Council's Water Services Department said the Council sent mobile water tankers to Emly and Mullinahone as a precaution to provide some assistance to residents of these areas until the water supply was restored.
In relation to the Emly breakdown, he explained that there was a water mains burst at Bruis School two miles from the reservoir last Friday night/ Saturday morning. The burst occurred along the main artery of the scheme but the Council did get a repair crew out to Emly and repairs were completed by the afternoon.
He said the water mains burst that cut off supplies in Mullinahone, Cloneen and Drangan happened at 3am on the Sunday morning. The Council knew there was an issue in that area since the Friday and contacted the caretaker in the area to investigate the source of the problem and got an electrical contractor to check the pumps. This contractor carried out some adjustments in the hope that it would do. When the breakdown occurred, the Council gave the standby caretaker the resources he needed. It took a while to locate the problem. A repair crew were there on Monday morning and had the supply restored by lunchtime..
Mr Fogarty said it was a difficult water scheme as it hadn't enough water storage but the Council was working to improve this and had prioritised the Mullinahone area for investment. Indeed, the Council was awaiting budget approval from the Department of Environment to proceed with replacing mains in parts of the scheme.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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