More than 70 complaints a day: Raised levels of manganese caused dirty water in Cork city

What Uisce Éireann described as “raised levels of manganese” were recently discovered in tap water in Cork city. This resulted in unprecedented numbers of complaints to the utility, as well as questions from local TDs as to why this information wasn’t contained in a warning issued through local media.

The disclosure about the raised levels of manganese — they were discovered during monitoring in the period from August 27-August 31 — was contained in a statement issued on Friday, following a scheduled meeting between Uisce Éireann and three Cork North Central TDs, Thomas Gould, of Sinn Féin, Mick Barry, of Solidarity/People Before Profit, and Fianna Fáil’s Pádraig O’Sullivan.

Junior minister and Fine Gael TD Colm Burke was also represented at the meeting.

“Manganese is a naturally occurring metal that is found in many soils, lakes, and rivers,” Uisce Éireann said in its statement.

“While a small amount of manganese is good for human health, the HSE advise that exposure to high manganese levels, on an ongoing basis, in drinking water, can be a risk to health.”

In a statement, Uisce Éireann, the utility, said it had consulted with the HSE, who did not recommend any restrictions on the water supply, but requested further testing.

Uisce Éireann said sampling was ongoing and results were continuing to be shared with the HSE.

The TDs attending Friday’s meeting were shown graphs that illustrated the more than 70 complaints that were made per day during the week of August 29 to September 3.

The previous highest level of complaints was 43 per day, during periods in August-September 2022, November 2022-February 2023, and September 2023-October 2023.

One of the issues raised during Friday’s meeting between Uisce Éireann and the TDs was the lack of any reference to manganese in the water supply in a previous statement from the company.

In a statement issued on Friday, Thomas Gould described the levels of manganese in the water supply as “unacceptable” and said that it was “nothing short of a scandal” to be informed, this week, that the discoloration wasn’t caused by sediment and rust in the pipes, but by “potentially dangerous, high levels of manganese in the water”.

“For months now, my constituents have been faced with dirty brown water coming from their taps,” said Mr Gould.

Mick Barry said Uisce Éireann “should have been straight with the people of Cork that it was caused by manganese in the water supply” and asked why the information wasn’t released.

“How do they expect people to have any faith at all in the people who manage our water supply when they suppress information such as this?

“I understand that a mechanism is now to be installed at the Lee Road Waterworks to remove manganese from the water, but why did the private operators not install such a mechanism when they were given €40m to design, build, and operate the plant?”

Pádraig O’Sullivan described as “incredibly frustrating” that discoloured water was being seen by customers right across the city.

“We met Irish Water six months ago, with a view that they were going to flush out section by section right across the city, and that this would lead to an improvement in the service,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“This evidently hasn’t happened and this is immensely frustrating to all concerned, particularly those who are drinking it and having to wash with it,” he said.