‘What the heck is going on?’ - Kilkenny communities having water cut off without warning

The recent, unannounced water outage in the Bennettsbridge, Danesfort and surrounding areas has been condemned as ‘appalling’.

Chairman of the Callan Thomastown Municipal District, Cllr Joe Lyons, said the water was turned off “with no warning” last week - for up to 30 hours in one area.

Not only were homes left with no water but one school in the area has paid €7,000 for water, as the lack of supply was creating a health and safety issue.

Ballyhale, Stoneyford, Thomastown, as well as Bennettsbridge have been affected and this is going on the last ‘couple of weeks,’ Cllr Deirdre Cullen told the meeting.

She acknowledged there had been a pump failure at a water plant, but said no prior notice was given to residents of the supply being turned off.

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“I have made complaints to Irish Water, over the last couple of weeks, because of the lack of notices. They say you have to be registered for alerts. Well I am and I didn’t get them!” Cllr Cullen said.

Complimenting Kilkenny County Council for its alert system, for road or water works, Cllr Cullen said “surely it’s up to Irish Water if there is a burst water main or an outage, to put out an alert?”

She said at one stage, over recent weeks, she felt like she was working for Irish Water, she had so many calls about the issue from people in the district.

Cllr Cullen said homes in Danesfort had no water supply for 30 hours, and when the supply returned they still couldn’t use the water because it was “as black as you can get.”

Businesses are also affected, Cllr Cullen pointed out. Nore Valley Park, which has a camping area and a pet farm, was also without a water supply for a significant time. Up to 150 guests couldn’t have showers, animals needed water. It was more than ‘not being able to make a cup of tea’.

“Why did it take me complaining to Irish Water for an alert to go out?” Cllr Cullen asked. “Where is the coordination between them and Kilkenny County Council to alert the public?” She said there was a broken link somewhere in the communication chain.
“Not being able to prepare is not on and it’s not fair,” she said.

The Bennettsbridge councillor said she had also put her own Eircode into the Irish Water website to check for alerts and even though her water was out at the time the website was reporting ‘no outage.’

“I propose we write to Irish Water highlighting the inconsistencies with alerts going out to the public and ask ‘what the heck is going on?’”

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Cllr Lyons seconded the proposal and called on Irish Water to invest in standby pumps so outages caused by this issue won’t be as bad.

Meeting Administrator, Anne Marie Shortall said she would write to Irish Water and also talk to the water services section of the county council and see if they could increase communications.
Cllr Cullen acknowledged the council staff are doing their best, she said her ire was directed at Irish Water.