This article is from page 1 of the 2011-01-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
CLARE County Council estimates that up to 400 homes still have no water or have an intermittent supply as work to repair leaks continues today around the county.
A council spokesperson confirmed on Monday that in the initial period that followed the rise in weather temperatures around 2,000 of the 30,000 homes that receive water from Clare County Council experienced supply problems.
Restrictions on supply are expected to be in place for another three days at least.
“I’d be concerned that parts of the county are suffering more than most . Obviously there must be a lack of infrastructure and that must be examined”, said Mayor of Clare, Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind).
Supply was cut off last night (Monday) from Aughanteeroe on the Gort Road to Barefield in an attempt to boost supply in Crusheen, where members of Clare Civil defence tankered thousand of litres of water to 100 homes on Sunday.
Myles Carey, of Clare County Council’s water services section explained: “The idea there is that, if we can restrict supply on that stretch of pipeline, the idea is to push water out to Crusheen. Crusheen has been one of the kind of blackspots in all of this and has ended up without water for a long time.”
Mr Carey said work will continue in Ennis until all visible leaks that resulted from recent cold weather con- ditions are located and repaired.
“The biggest leaks, the biggest water losses, our lads are going to those first.”
Over 35 per cent of the 16,000 cubic metres of water being produced at the Ennis water treatment plant is currently being lost due to leaks.
Mr Carey said that the “exceptional losses” sustained in Ennis are due to the old and fractured network of pipes in the town. He said a € 6.2 million pipe rehabilitation programme will commence in Ennis later this year.