Kilkenny's hosepipe ban finally lifted after long, dry summer

Drought water restrictions for Kilkenny have finally been lifted and households have been congratulated for complying but Irish Water want the public to continue conserve water.

Irish Water can confirm that as of today, September 25,  the remaining Water Conservation Orders affecting Kilkenny, Laois, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Carlow, Offaly, Wicklow, Meath, Westmeath, Louth and Dublin have now been lifted.

Many of these counties had been placed under what is known as a hosepipe ban in July.

The Irish Water Board met and reviewed the data that indicates that the reduction in demand, the availability of water resources and the prevailing weather conditions mean that the justification for the Water Conservation Order no longer applies, however with some schemes in Kilkenny and Carlow still at risk, customers are being asked to continue to conserve water where possible.

Kilkenny/Carlow

In Kilkenny and Carlow, customers are asked to continue to conserve water where possible as some schemes in Bennettsbridge, Clogh and Castlecomer remain on night time restrictions.

The Bennettsbridge Water Supply Scheme is currently on restriction due to demand for water exceeding the available raw water in the existing sources.  We are working in conjunction with Kilkenny County Council to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of these restrictions on customers by managing restrictions to match the availability of water. As part of this work, we have recently signed contracts to bring a new borehole into supply at Bennettsbridge.

The borehole will require construction work, pump installation, commissioning and testing, and a period of consultation with the HSE and EPA before being signed off and approved by Irish Water and Kilkenny County Council.
The supply has suffered in the recent drought conditions and it is anticipated that the additional source will augment the current supply. It is hoped the work will be completed by early November 2018.  

In August, significant rain fell in the North and Western Regions, replenishing water sources in those areas to the extent that the specific usage prohibitions were lifted. However, at this time supplies in the Southern, Eastern and Midlands regions had not recovered and a new Water Conservation Order to cover the public water supplies in counties Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Laois, Offaly, Wicklow, Meath, Westmeath, Louth and Dublin, was issued. The order took effect on the 1st September 2018 and was due to conclude at midnight on the 30th of September 2018.

Commenting on the lifting of the Water Conservation Orders, Irish Water’s Engineering expert Kate Gannon said,

“The Water Conservation Orders were vital for reducing significant peaks in demand that Irish Water witnessed in early June 2018. The Orders, combined with the excellent conservation efforts made by homes and businesses across the country prevented major outages to water supplies in many communities. As rainfall is returning to more average rates, our water sources which were very dry during the summer can recharge more quickly.

“In the Greater Dublin Area, where we were very concerned about the levels in the Poulaphuca reservoir, the rate of decline has decreased significantly and the probability of an outage is now very low. Levels at the Inniscarra dam in Cork, Lough Guitane in Kerry and Lough Owel in Mullingar have all stablised and are recovering.”

“While this is very welcome news, it is essential that people continue to conserve water. We are really grateful for all the efforts people made over the past few months in their homes and businesses. It was really encouraging to see. Conserving water will make our water sources more resilient and help to safeguard our water for the future benefiting communities all across the country.”