Councillors press for replacement of old water mains in Ballinure area

Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District councillors have appealed for the replacement of old water mains in the Ballinure area in the wake of water supply outages due to a bad leak and two mains bursts last week.

A water mains burst at Ballinure last Wednesday, May 26 left many households and businesses on the Fethard Supply Scheme between Killenaule and Water without water. It was repaired and as the water supply began to replenish there was a second mains burst, this time at Greystown.

Irish Water said water supply was restored to the majority of customers last Thursday evening with supply returning to remaining customers last Friday night. It also repaired a bad leak impacting water supplies in the same area. During the outage, alternative water supplies were available in tankers in Ballinure village and Laffansbridge, Killenaule.

Ballingarry’s Cllr Imelda Goldsboro asked at Carrick Municipal District’s monthly meeting last Thursday if there was any way a funding application could be made to replace the very old water mains in this area or had costings or proposals to seek funding already been submitted to Irish Water.

Carrick MD Chairperson Cllr Mark Fitzgerald from Cloneen supported her call, highlighting how the replacement of old water main pipes in his area made a “world of difference” to the water supply.

Tipperary County Council Senior Executive Engineer John Crowley responded that the council has frequent talks with Irish Water about replacing water mains and they would “emphasise the requirement” to upgrade the mains in the Ballinure/Dualla area with the utility.

He couldn’t confirm to Cllr Goldsboro whether costings or proposals for water mains replacement for this area have been sent to Irish Water but promised to check the list and come back to her.

Mullinahone’s Cllr Kevin O’Meara requested that if water mains replacement for Ballinure wasn’t on the list then it should be included on it urgently.

He claimed that people in this area had been without water more than having it during the summer over the past three years.