Further water and traffic disruption on Cork's northside

Essential works may yet again cause water supply and traffic disruptions to parts of Cork’s northside on Monday, Uisce Éireann has warned.

The water utility company, which rebranded from Irish Water at the start of the year, said mains repairs works, part of the company’s National Leakage Reduction Programme, are scheduled to take place from 9am until 3pm on 15 May.

The company said the works may cause supply water and traffic disruptions in supply disruptions to Sunday's Well Road and surrounding areas in Cork city, with a traffic management plan to remain in place for the duration of the works.

Uisce Éireann’s website says it recommends that the public allow two to three hours after the estimated restoration time for water supply to fully return.

These are the latest works by the utility in the Sunday’s Well area, works which have been occurring serially and sporadically since at least the autumn of 2021.

In October of 2022, Sinn Féin councillor Mick Nugent described as "traffic carnage" the disruption caused on a busy Saturday afternoon when contractors working on behalf of Irish Water effected simultaneous road closures at the North Mall and the junction of Sunday’s Well and Shanakiel, causing lengthy tailbacks on Sunday’s Well Road, Shanakiel, Shandon Street, and Blarney Street.

Sunday’s Well has also been one of many areas of the city repeatedly affected by discoloured water since the launch of the then Irish Water’s new Lee Road water treatment plant in July of 2022.

After the treatment plant opened last summer, the water utility company was inundated with complaints as brown and orange discoloured water from household taps in multiple locations across the city.

As previously reported in The Echo, according to documents released to Socialist Party TD Mick Barry under a Freedom of Information request, the number of complaints about water quality in Cork city last year rose from 20 per week in the Lee Road plant’s first week of operation last July to 119 complaints in one week in August.

In the four months after the plant opened, the company received 610 complaints of discoloured water from residents across the city.

In 2022, Irish Water received 29 reports from people in Cork city complaining of illnesses suspected to have been caused by water consumption, compared to just one such complaint in 2020 and two in 2021.

Last October, after a series of questions from The Echo, Irish Water admitted that it had been responsible for the discolouration of at least some of the city’s drinking supply since last summer.

The company said an adjustment of the chemicals used in water preparation had caused rusty sediment to be stripped from the inside of Cork city’s century-old water mains, resulting in discoloured water pouring out of household taps in homes across the city.

In the correspondence released to Mick Barry TD under FOI was an email, dated 22 August 2022, from Irish Water informing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of an increase in complaints of discoloured water in Cork city.

The mail noted that water from the new Lee Road plant had entered the supply on July 29 2022 and added: “There is the potential that process changes, particularly the change in the pH corrective chemical in use, i.e. from Lime to Caustic, may be contributing to the problem and causing the water to become more corrosive”.

Uisce Éireann has insisted that discoloured water does not pose a health and safety risk, while simultaneously warning people not to drink discoloured water and issuing assurances that water is safe to drink if taps are kept on until the water runs clear.

Updates on the latest Sunday’s Well works may be accessed on the Uisce Éireann website, water.ie, using the reference CCI00062627.