Water outage forces West Cork residents to change their Christmas Day plans

Several households in West Cork were left with no option but to change their Christmas day plans and go to the homes of relatives for dinner due to a water outage.

On Christmas Day Uisce Éireann reported that crews were repairing a burst water main, adding “it may cause supply disruptions to Shannonvale, Ballinascarty and surrounding areas.”

Shannonvale, a village near Clonakilty, has had persistent problems with their water supply, with a park in the area rendered unusable for the last 27 years due to sewage issues.

While repair workers came out on Christmas morning and managed to restore supply, a local resident said that it had been the third outage in the area in the space of a week, showing that there is an ongoing problem.

Three outages 

Alan Dromey, chair of the Clonakilty clean-water committee, said, “There’s a housing estate in Shannonvale where the houses are fed by the Uisce Éireann line, and in the week leading up to Christmas they had three outages.

“I’ve only been living here for a year and a half but there have been two more previous outages in that time, so there’s clearly an issue with the piping or the pressure because the pipes continually burst.

“That means homes are without water, and it also leaves the road in a very poor condition.” 

Mr Dromey told The Echo: “Some of the affected residents had to change their plans and spend Christmas dinner with relatives.

“Additionally, the lack of running water for washing and showers in the days leading up to Christmas forced residents to rely on others for support.

“While infrastructure improvements are planned for the area, these cannot proceed until the recurring water issue is resolved.” 

He thanked the crews who came out at 8.30am on Christmas morning and managed to restore water supply that afternoon, saying: “It’s terrible to be without water, and it’s also awful for them to have to come out on Christmas morning. In fairness to them, they were very quick, so we really value them.

“They key thing now is that there’s been three outages in a week, we hope that’s the last one, but there’s obviously a larger issue. I know there’s plans to resurface that road and improve the infrastructure but until the water issue is resolved, that can’t happen.” 

Uisce Éireann crews were also out in the northside of Cork city on Christmas day, repairing a burst water pipe in Glanmire.