Efforts continue to restore water supply
John Barry
Workers are making every effort to restore a normal water service in North Cork.
The Freemount Water Treatment Plant saw its electricity panel effected by a fire that broke out at the plant on 11 August. Irish Water and Cork County Council employees, along with specialist contractors, have been working around the clock to restore normal production and to provide temporary supplies to the community affected.
The villages of Freemount, Dromina, Liscarroll and Milford are normally supplied by the scheme as well as large surrounding rural areas with the Allow Regional Water Supply Scheme serving a population of 3,500 from seven distribution reservoirs and an extensive network of 150km of pipeline.
Within two hours of the fire occurring on Sunday afternoon, efforts commenced to immediately transport water into the area and to assess the extent of works involved to safely restore normal production at the plant. Connections to the adjoining Charleville Water Supply Scheme have been opened which has facilitated continuous water supply to parts of the Dromina area.
Temporary water stations are available for use at the following locations:
* Freemount Community Centre
* Kerry Agribusiness, Freemount
* Saint Peter and Paul’s Church, Dromina
* Milford National School
* Liscarroll National School
* Saint Brigid’s Cemetery
Irish Water commented: “As it is not practical to provide sterilised containers for the public to transport drinking water from the tanker to their homes, we cannot guarantee that any containers used by the public do not negatively impact or contaminate the drinking water. Therefore, as a precautionary measure, it is recommended that any members of the public who obtain water from a tanker or bowser boil the water before use.”
Neil Smyth, Irish Water’s Operations Lead, said: “We’ve been in emergency mode since the fire occurred on Sunday afternoon and rapid progress has been made to deal with the damage caused to the plant. A temporary power source has been installed and it is hoped that the testing of all the equipment at the plant will be completed so that we can begin to start safely introducing water into the system. Huge efforts are underway to provide temporary supply by tanker to as many properties as possible. Because of the size of the scheme, it will take a number of days for the system to fill and for connections at high elevation and at the ends of the lines to be restored. We acknowledge the significant inconvenience this brings and we wish to thank the community for their patience while these emergency works are progressed.”
Customers can call 1850-278278 for updates.