Irish Water, working in partnership with Galway County Council, reached a major milestone recently when the boil water notice at the Tir an Fhia Water Treatment Plant in Co Galway was lifted. An implementation group with experts from both Irish Water and Galway County Council was established to access the risk to the plant and develop a programme of necessary upgrade works to bring the plant back to compliant functionality and meet Irish Water best practice standards following the announcement of the boil water notice.
The notice was imposed on the plant on January 21. The Implementation Group which comprised experts from Irish Water (scientists, process optimisation analysts, engineers, compliance specialists ) and Galway County Council (engineers, technicians and caretakers ) was quick to identify the necessary programme of works and oversee their implementation which saw the notice being lifted three months later, on April 28.
The substantial upgrade that was carried out at the plant included modification of the existing water treatment plant and increased controls in the treatment process which has addressed water quality issues in the area. As a result of the works the treatment plant now meets all drinking water regulations.
This is the first time since the introduction of Implementation Groups that the process has been followed through to completion. Irish Water is in the process of setting up Implementation Groups in each Local Authority area, and this Galway group has led the way to achieving a major success by collaborating and sharing expertise.
Outlining the importance of Implementation Groups Pat O’Sullivan, Irish Water Compliance Analyst said: “The purpose of the Implementation Groups is to bring non-compliant drinking water and wastewater sites into compliance and to achieve efficiencies where possible. The group provides a forum where relevant experts can meet, discuss, agree actions and ensure such actions are carried out.”
Ger Greally, Irish Water lead in Galway City and County commented that Tír An Fhia was one of the first schemes where this initiative was rolled out and it proved highly successful in quickly identifying and implementing the necessary improvements and measures to enable the lifting of the boil water notice within a short period of time.
Tony Kelly, Senior Executive Engineer, Galway County Council said that constructive co-operation between Irish Water and the local authorities can lead to very successful outcomes in process optimisation and improvements.”
