Water outages and shortages continue to cause misery for business owners and residents in Ratoath

Hannah McNamara

A Ratoath café owner has said ongoing water shortages and outages are seriously damaging his business.

Russell Bailey owner of Novello coffee shop, Ratoath has experienced disruptions to his business nine times since Mid-May due to water shortages.

Five of these days involved complete closure while the other four were a combination of opening late or closing early.

The award-winning Meath restaurateur has asked Irish Water to put a contingency plan in place to assist him in saving his business.

Russell mentioned how he was forced to close on one of the busiest days of the year, Father's Day because he "had no water for the coffee machine." Although Russell's restaurant La Bucca remained open, he stated many people cancelled bookings due to uncertainty.

He also said that outages would sometimes affect his restaurant which is located above the coffee shop and he would have to "ring customers and either offer them a place in my restaurants in Ashbourne or Dunboyne instead of offer a takeaway service."

Russell said: "Customers are starting to get angry, even though the situation is beyond our control and are already looking elsewhere for their morning coffee fix as we cannot guarantee that we will be open."

Russell mentioned how the water shortages are also affecting the work team:

"The staff and management are becoming increasingly frustrated as each time we have to close they go without pay."

The outages are unsuitable to businesses that rely on water services. Russell mentioned other services that are struggling to cope with the circumstances such as the local hairdressers.

He said: "This is just not sustainable and businesses need to be told what is going on and there needs to be a short to medium plan put in place by Irish Water."

Local Cllr Nick Killian met with Irish Water management on Thursday 22nd June to discuss the situation. Nick Killian stated he left the meeting "frustrated" after being told there were no solutions to the water cuts, which may last up to 18 months.

Cllr Killian said: "There must be a contingency plan. People and businesses need to be assured of water. They're being deprived of a basic human right."

In a statement Irish Water shared their future plans around East Meath:

"There are a number of water projects planned in the East Meath area over the coming years to provide network resilience and security of supply.

Uisce Éireann, working in partnership with Meath County Council, is continuing to invest and prioritise where we can deliver the most urgently needed improvements."

Russell Bailey was informed that the current estimation that installation of new pipes will be completed by the end of 2024.

Irish Water advised businesses to "have on-site water storage tanks to provide a backup source of water in the event of a water outage."