Clare Island residents without water for 10 days

THE residents of the north and west of Clare Island have endured 10 consecutive days of water outage.

This morning, residents of the north finally have water in their taps after 10 days of disruption to the supply. The disruption comes just six weeks since the lifting of Clare Island’s fifth boil water notice in two years.

Disruption commenced on Tuesday, November 7, for sporadic periods until 12 p.m. on Wednesday, November 8, when the water supply was fully cut off from these parts of the island.

A statement issued on behalf of islanders set out: 'Not having water on an island is a huge concern, not only for drinking water and basic sanitisation, but if a fire was to occur. Our remote location leaves us very vulnerable in an already under resourced (for fire equipment) small community. No running water is a huge risk. Any businesses operating during this period also carries higher risk on their insurance, as running water is necessary at all times.

'Clare Island’s population consists partly of vulnerable people in the elderly, pregnant women and infant children, not to mention young families and convalescents.'

No notification or warning of disruptions was given to the residents prior to November 13, they say, when Joanne Carroll, community development coordinator for the island, contacted Uisce Eireann for an update.

She was informed that due to suspected leaks, step testing was taking place on the network causing temporary loss of water supply for short periods to the north and west on that day (Monday).

Uisce Eireann outlined that further step testing would continue throughout the week which would see a reoccurrence of these short interruptions to the water supply.

'In actuality, these short interruptions became one long continuous water outage - i.e. 10 days to see the resumption of water supply. It was not until the evening of November 14, seven days following the first occurrence of water supply disruption, that Uisce Eireann provided a pallet of bottled water for the Clare Island residents affected by the water outage.'

The statement continued: 'This is the second water outage since the lifting of the fifth boil water notice (BWN) that has plagued the island in the past two years. A mere two weeks after the cessation of the BWN on October 18 and 19, the residents of the north and west of the island were without water for 36 plus hours. One pallet of water was provided on this occasion.

'Despite appeals to Uisce Eireann to provide contingency water supplies to the island, to be proactive for further water outages, this has not been fulfilled by Uisce Eireann to date.

'Further, when asked to provide a timeline for upgrade works to commence to the Clare Island water supply network the response that came was these projects take anywhere from 18-24 months to complete. Based on the evidence of the quality of water supply in the past two years, this timeline is abysmal and shockingly unacceptable.'

Uisce Eireann, they said, outlines its purpose is to 'rise to the challenge of delivering transformative water services that enable communities to thrive'. In the case of Clare Island, it has failed to rise to any challenge and have not delivered even close to a transformative water service to the community.

'When will this sorry saga end? When will the people of Clare Island have their basic human right of access to adequate quality water supply fulfilled?

'Now is the time for action, not words. Words, apologies, and appreciation for the hardship the Clare Island residents have extensively experienced does not put water through the taps or to the mouths of the community.'

UISCE ÉIREANN RESPONSE

Uisce Éireann have issued the following response in relation to the issue:

Uisce Éireann was made aware of an interruption to the water supply on Clare Island this Tuesday, November 14, and immediately began working to identify the issue.

Difficulties were encountered in restoring supply to all parts of the network and dedicated crews worked through the issues in recent days with water restored to all homes by Thursday, November 16. Bottled water was provided for customers affected by the outage.

Uisce Éireann regrets the inconvenience caused to the community.

For unplanned outages, Uisce Éireann immediately investigates the issue and work as a matter of priority to restore normal water supply to impacted homes and businesses as quickly and as safely as possible. For unforeseen/ unplanned outages like the one on Clare Island this week it was not possible to provide advance notice to customers, however, information including the restoration time is added to the Uisce Éireann website at https://www.water.ie/water-supply/supply-and-service-update/