Thousands of households and business in Galway city and county are facing a miserable start of the New Year with burst water pipes and leaks causing millions of euro in damage to homes and premises. Water restrictions are already in place right across Galway and will remain so until at least next week.
Crews from both Galway City Council and Galway County Council are working around the clock to repair leaking mains and have appealed to the public to conserve water supplies amid fears that public supplies may run out in the coming days.
The news has been greeted with disbelief by exasperated business owners who face losing out on lucrative New Year’s Eve business because of water restrictions and water damage to their properties.
Water restrictions are in place overnight in 12 areas of the county and will be in place until water supplies are restored to normal levels in the coming week. A full list of the restrictions and areas is available on the county council website (www.galway.ie ).
A spokesperson for Galway County Council confirmed that the situation is going to worsen as reservoir levels across the county are critically low, with some householders set to lose water supplies again from today as efforts are made to conserve supplies.
“There remain a lot of consumers throughout the county without water some still due to frozen pipes but now increasingly due to low reservoir levels due to burst mains
and leaks on consumers properties. As a result consumer demand is outstripping production at some reservoirs. If you do have water please conserve it carefully,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile in Galway city crews have been working to repair major bursts in a number of mains water pipes at Ballybane, Menlo and Knocknacara and all of these have been completed.
Mayor of Galway Cllr Michael Crowe has confirmed that Galway City Council is continuing to work around the clock to restore water to all homes and businesses that are currently without supply. The Mayor has held daily meetings with the Director of Services to ensure that all that can be done is been done.
Speaking to The Advertiser last evening, he said that there are a significant number of water damaged properties in the city area.
“It was clear that there were major bursts in the city’s main water line and that priority had to go in to locating them and repairing them. A number of these, for example in Ballybane, Menlo and Knocknacarra have now been repaired and we are continuing to work on others and are also continuing to try to find more”
“These problems have resulted in historic levels of low water in the reservoirs so along with the aforementioned, I would also appeal to all property owners to check their premises and ensure that there are no leaking or burst pipes. From analyzing the information, my own view is there are a significant number of properties that have this problem. I would also ask people to ensure taps are now not running as there is no longer a need for that. These issues are contributing to the overall problem”
“Finally, while we have made good progress over the last couple of days in restoring water to many people we still have more to do. I understand the frustration people without water are going through but can I reassure the people of Galway that all hands are on deck to resolve this problem as quickly as possible and that I, as Mayor will continue to ensure that this will be done by continuing to hold daily meetings with the management team and by also receiving updates and progress reports each evening. The people have my word that this will be resolved as soon as physically possible,” concluded Mayor Crowe
