This article is from page 17 of the 2007-03-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
WORK on the long-awaited perma- nent water treatment facility for En- nis is set to commence in summer and expected to last 78 weeks.
Tender applications for the €7.5 million project will be finalised next week with a detailed report to follow soon after.
Speaking at Monday’s monthly meeting of Clare County Council, Councillor Joe Carey (FG) requested firm assurances from the council that the timetable would be adhered to.
“People are outraged in Ennis re- garding the water supply. There are people putting their hands in their pockets every week to pay for wa- ter. It’s hard on parents with young children. Will people be expected to boil water for year and a half? That is not acceptable, it is highly unsat- istactory. | have been going round to people’s doorsteps and seven out of 10 people have mentioned it to me.”
Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald (Lab) said problems with the water supply had damaged the image of Ennis as a tourist destination.
He said, “We’ve been waiting and waiting for something to happen. The people of Ennis deserve a proper service. When people visit Ennis and stay in hotels and they are told they have to go out to the shop to buy bot- tles of water, they must think it’s an absolute disgrace.”
Councillor Martin Conway said, “I have heard that the Dunnes Stores branch in Ennis is the number one in Ireland for selling bottles of water and that says it all. Clean water is a basic human right.”
Senior Engineer Walter Walsh said
the contractor would determine when the project was completed.
‘We have been assured by the de- partment that when the application is forwarded to them that they will deal with it as swiftly as possible. The contractor has the right to change the period of construction. We can’t instruct him to change the contract period.”