End of the water crisis in sight with Staleen plant back in production

Repair of the burst watermain at Staleen that has caused misery for thousands of residents over the past week, is now complete and the Staleen Water Treatment Plan is back in production.

Irish Water says reservoir levels are continuing to fill and levels have begun to rise overnight. It is anticipated that supply will begin to be restored to residents over the coming days from this morning. According to Irish Water it may take several days for full service to restored to all customers, particularly those on high ground and at the periphery of the network.

Irish Water is asking customers are asked to continue to conserve their mains water supply for the next few days until supply has returned to normal.

As the day progresses it is expected that a full mains water supply will return to the following areas in Meath: Duleek, Stamullen, and the coastal areas of Laytown, Bettystown, Mornington, Donacarney, and Grangerath and Southern Ashbourne. There will continue to be isolated areas and areas on high ground that will experience disruption and/or low pressure.

Restoration of the supply will take longer, particularly to the remaining parts of Ashbourne, Ratoath and areas on high ground and on the periphery of the network. 

'Rostered mains supply rationing will continue today.  As the day progresses we expect to be in a position to supply more areas with a mains supply and gradually remove temporary supply locations.  Updates on this will be made throughout the day. Water will continue to be delivered to vulnerable customers until their supply is restored,'  said a spokesperson for Irish Water.

'Disturbance in the pipe may result in some customers receiving turbidly or discoloured water. We are monitoring water quality and the water is safe to drink. Customers may have airlocks in their pipes and information on how to remove these can be found on our www.water.ie. Temporary water stations will remain in place until full service is restored. Bottled water will continue to be distributed to vulnerable customers.'

Defence Force personnel will continue to assist with the deployment of water at the designated stations. All available Meath County Council personnel including the Fire & Emergency Services and Civil Defence remain deployed throughout the affected areas.

The 34 designated water stations at 25 locations in Meath continue to be in place. Click here for map of locations.

 

Meath County Council says water storage units are continually being replenished and customers are reminded to bring clean containers, and as a precautionary measure to boil water taken from these stations before use.

Yesterday Irish Water stated that the longer term replacement of the 2.2km pipeline would take at least 18 months and a budget of  €2-3m will be needed to complete the work.

'A detailed programme for complete replacement will take a number of weeks to finalise and we will need to undertake detailed planning and design work before we can be confident around the exact timeframe for this to happen,' said Irish Water's spokesperson.