Addressing a recent meeting of Athlone and Moate Municipal District, Fianna Fáil Councillor, Frankie Keena, informed his fellow elected representatives that work had commenced pertaining to the provision of a temporary upgrading of the Athlone water treatment plant at Marine View.
Upon completion of the water treatment works upgrade, there will be a daily increase in the output of water by two thousand mega litres.
“Last October, both former Minister of State, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran and I, in my capacity of Municipal District Mayor, met with Irish Water senior management in Dublin to outline our deep concerns of the severe water restrictions and frequent outages being experienced by residents and businesses throughout the Athlone area.
“After a prolonged discussion, Irish Water stated that they would install a temporary upgrade to the Athlone Plant in 2020 and in future times they will carry out a major upgrade of the plant at Marine View.
This was further confirmed to me via a follow up email from Irish Water last May in which they stated that the COVID-19 pandemic was having an impact on their portfolio of construction projects including the interim works at the Athlone Water Treatment Plant.
“Also, subject to statutory processes, Irish Water noted that it was their intention to progress with plans to carry out an enduring upgrade to the Athlone plant to provide for the social and economic growth in development within our town in the longer term.
“Thankfully with the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, temporary work has now commenced on site which, upon completion, will cater for Athlone’s current and future water demand needs over the next number of years.
“In addition to this, Irish Water had major success in the Athlone area during the last year through its Leakage Reduction Programme where they saved approximately 750,000 litres per day. The repair of a significant leak near the Battery Heights reservoir has resulted in further daily savings of 600,000 litres per day.
“The combined impact of the completion of these temporary works at the Athlone Water Treatment Plant and the continuation of the Leakage Reduction Programme will provide good news for residents and businesses in Athlone as it was just unacceptable with the level of restrictions and outages they had to endure over the last couple of years.
“It will also be welcome news for the IDA and Enterprise Ireland as they continue their expert work in looking to attract new industries to the town,” Cllr. Keena asserted.
Be dog vigilant
Meanwhile, Cllr Keena has issued a warning to householders who own dogs to be vigilant as he has been made aware of a number of incidents in recent days.
“During the last week criminals have targeted properties in the Moydrum/Baylin areas by leaving a mark of white paint on the outer road boundary walls and fences to signify that there is a dog on the property. This is a way of informing a follow up crew as to where the dogs are.
“While the Gardai have been notified by residents about this, it is very important that everyone keeps an eye out for any suspicious cars in their area and records their number plates. All information no matter how small should be passed on to the Gardai,” Cllr Keena stressed.
