Further water disruption likely in Cork residential area

Works are likely to cause water supply disruptions in a residential area on the northside of Cork city this week, Uisce Éireann has warned.

The water utility company, which changed its name from Irish Water at the start of the year, said the works, which are part of its National Leakage Reduction Programme, will begin at 8am and continue until midday on Wednesday 6 December.

The company said the works may cause water supply disruption to Upper Janemount, Sunday’s Well, and surrounding areas in Cork City.

As is its standard policy, the water utility company said it recommends that residents affected by the works allow two to three hours after the estimated restoration time for water supply to fully return.

Sunday’s Well is one of several areas across the city which have been affected by intermittent instances of discoloured water in the drinking supply in the months since summer of last year, when the then Irish Water opened its new Lee Road water treatment plant.

As previously reported in The Echo, after the new treatment facility opened in July 2022, the water utility company noted a sharp rise in complaints about water quality as brown and orange discoloured water began to flow from taps in multiple locations across the city.

According to documents released to Socialist Party TD for Cork North Central, Mick Barry, following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, complaints about water quality in Cork city rose from 20 per week in the Lee Road plant’s first week of operation to 119 complaints in one week the following month, representing an increase of 495%.

In the four months after the water treatment 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.

In October 2022, following a series of questions submitted by 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 water 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.

Amongst the correspondence released to Mick Barry TD under FOI was an email from Irish Water, dated 22 August 2022, to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) informing the statutory environmental watchdog 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, the mail 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, but has warned people not to drink discoloured water.

The company has issued numerous assurances that water is safe to drink if taps are kept running until the water runs clear.

Updates on Wednesday’s planned works in Sunday’s Well may be accessed on the Uisce Éireann website using the reference CCI00071151.