No invitation to any public meeting on water discolouration in Cork, says water utility

Uisce Éireann has not been invited to any public meetings to discuss water discolouration in Cork, a spokesperson for the utilities company has said.

The spokesperson also told The Echo that representatives of Uisce Éireann had presented to three Cork TDs as recently as the end of November 2023.

It comes as Pádraig O’Sullivan, Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North Central, repeated a call for a public meeting with company representatives, saying that “too many people, both on the northside and the southside, are unable to drink or utilise their domestic water”.

Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould TD this week called for a meeting, and this was echoed by his three constituency colleagues, Fine Gael’s Colm Burke, Socialist Party TD Mick Barry, and Mr O’Sullivan, as well as by Cork South Central Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire.

However, a spokesperson for Uisce Éireann said the company had not been invited to attend any public meetings in relation to discoloured water in Cork city, but said it had an open and ongoing dialogue with elected representatives.

Cork TDs call for meeting ongoing discoloured drinking water issues https://t.co/a3EXpe2EwQ

— EchoLive.ie (@echolivecork) January 2, 2024

“On Friday, November 24, our chief operations officer, Eamon Gallen and members of the Cork city water quality steering group gave a presentation to three TDs from Cork North Central and Cork South Central,” said the spokesperson.

“Uisce Éireann is issuing updates to elected representatives as they arise in relation to water quality in Cork city. This includes when operational flushing works are taking place in their constituency. Uisce Éireann also has a dedicated service desk to address elected representatives’ queries via phone and email.”

Recently, Uisce Éireann told The Echo that, over the past two years, 95 people in Cork city had complained of illnesses suspected of having been caused by water consumption, compared to just one such complaint in 2020 and two in 2021. The company also received 1,484 complaints of discoloured water from homes and businesses across the city in 2022, receiving 1,628 such complaints in 2023.

Several areas across the city have been affected by ongoing instances of discoloured water since July 2022, when the then Irish Water opened its new Lee Road water treatment plant.

In October 2022, Irish Water told The Echo that 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 in homes across town.

Uisce Éireann insists that discoloured water does not pose a health risk, but has warned people not to drink it.