Call for action to improve 'chaotic' water supply in Clonmel

No area had been as badly affected with water supply problems as Clonmel and it wasn’t good enough, Cllr Siobhán Ambrose told a meeting of Clonmel Borough District.
She said water outages were happening almost every week and something needed to be done quickly. The situation for homes and businesses was chaotic and untenable, and couldn’t be allowed to continue.
When the water was cut off, people were told to check the Irish Water website, and out of pure desperation many of them were contacting local councillors.
Householders couldn’t wash or prepare food and on a recent weekend some businesses, including restaurants, had to close because the supply couldn’t be guaranteed.
Cllr Ambrose said that even when planned works were taking place there was no communication from Irish Water to let people know that the supply would be interrupted. People came home from work or got up in the morning to find they had no water. She said the plan to extract water from the River Suir was “years away” and wouldn’t happen overnight.

Outages in the Kilcash, Ballypatrick, Kilsheelan and Killusty areas weren’t happening as frequently as in Clonmel but they were impacting heavily on homes, farms and other businesses. The problems there needed to be tackled now before they became any worse.

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District Mayor Pat English said that Clonmel’s water supply problems amounted to “a national disgrace” and something needed to be done in the short term.
Irish Water would have to be taken on so that the town got what it was entitled to, he stated.
A long term plan was also needed to restore the town’s pristine supply. In the previous week a Boil Water Notice had been issued for 10,500 households in the Clonmel area that received their water from Glenary, and there was no end in sight to the problems.
Since Irish Water had taken over responsibility for the supply, there was an ongoing problem with a lack of investment in the Glenary and Poulavanogue treatments plants. When the local authority had responsibility for the supply, it had caretakers in charge of those plants.
Cllr English said it wouldn’t be possible to cope with the growth in Clonmel, including the establishment of more industry and a greater level of house-building, without a proper water supply.
Cllr Michael Murphy said the previous number of weeks had reinforced his view that the biggest challenge facing Clonmel was the lack of investment in the water supply. He asked what could people expect in the next six to twelve months; would it be more of the same or would the situation get worse. More house-building was taking off and this was putting more pressure on an already crumbling system, said Cllr Murphy.
Cllr John FitzGerald said it was an awful situation and he supported Cllr Ambrose’s suggestion to invite Irish Water officials to attend a meeting of the Borough District. When you contacted Irish Water all you got was a reference number and that was supposed to placate people. John Fogarty, senior executive engineer of Tipperary County Council, said that as an interim solution to the problems a capital scheme for the Glenary plant had been put together. That had moved into the capital delivery stage with Irish Water.
He said that the Monroe source was moving a little bit slower than they thought and this needed to be brought to the next level.
Regarding the Boil Water Notices, Mr Fogarty said that colour issues with water had been experienced across the county when it rained following a long dry spell.
And with colour came the risk of cryptosporidium in the supply.