Irish Water has conducted watermains flushing in an area of Cork’s northside in a bid to improve water quality.

Flushing was done yesterday and again this morning following concerns around water discolouration for some residents in the Churchfield area.

It follows an unplanned water outage in the area earlier this week.

“There was an unplanned water outage in the Churchfield area earlier this week but when that happened it resulted in a few queries about the quality of the water in certain parts of the area,” Fianna Fáil councillor for the city’s North West ward, Tony Fitzgerald told The Echo.

“There were two issues really, the unplanned outage and then the water quality issue.

“I made enquiries to Irish Water on behalf of the residents,” he continued.

Mr Fitzgerald was informed by Irish Water that, with regards to notification, Irish Water “does try and inform residents on planned outages” but that it “cannot do this for unplanned outages”.

Irish Water said that the main methods of communication are its website and Twitter when unplanned outages do occur.

Mr Fitzgerald was also advised that Irish Water intended to flush the mains at Churchfield in an effort to correct the water quality issue being experienced.

Flushing is an exercise to remove sediment, rust and other particles that have accumulated in the water pipes.

In a statement to The Echo, a spokesperson for Irish Water confirmed that there was some localised discolouration in the network in the Churchfield area earlier this week and, in an attempt to resolve the issue, there was flushing done yesterday and this morning. 

“We believe this will be sufficient to resolve the issue but will continue to monitor.

“Irish Water Customer Care team is available on Twitter @IWCare and via our customer care helpline, open 24/7 on 1800 278 278,” the spokesperson added.

Mr Fitzgerald said he hopes these works will ease the minds of the residents about the concerns over water quality.