Cork city Northside residents fed up of drinking water issues

Dozens of families across Cork’s northside were left without drinkable water on Christmas Day and people are “blue in the face” from dealing with Uisce Éireann, a city councillor has said.

Michelle Gould, Sinn Féin city councillor in the north-west ward, said she had received multiple complaints over Christmas from northside families complaining about discoloured water.

“I had people from Gurranabraher across to the Commons Road contact me to say they’re just sick of it now, and it was ongoing from Christmas Eve,” she said.

“I checked [Uisce Éireann’s] website to see was there any burst waterpipe, any scheduled flushing works, anything that might be causing the dirty water, and there was nothing.

“I emailed Uisce Éireann but I just got back the same generic email that they give out all the time, and I’m sick of it at this stage. I asked them if they were going to distribute drinking water to people who couldn’t rely on their supply, and they didn’t reply.

“It’s beyond a joke now, and people are just blue in the face from the same old non-answers from Uisce Éireann,” Ms Gould said.

Water quality became an ongoing and widespread problem in Cork city when the then Irish Water opened its €40m Lee Road water treatment plant in July, 2022, and became inundated with complaints about brown and orange discoloured water across the city.

Intermittent issues with water quality have persisted since then.

In September of this year, Uisce Éireann announced a further investment of €1.6m at the Lee Road water treatment plant.

An Uisce Éireann spokesperson has said the company remained committed to addressing instances of water discolouration in Cork city.

“Our dedicated water quality taskforce has made progress in a number of areas over the course of 2024, including targeted flushing, accelerated network improvements and additional investment to progress two new processes at the Lee Road water treatment plant.”

The company acknowledged the frustration of people living with discoloured water and said it wished to assure them the taskforce was undertaking “all possible measures to minimise discolouration and address the underlying issues across the city”.

It said a number of burst water mains in the city over the Christmas period may have led to short term discolouration for some households.

“Public health remains our top priority, and we want to reiterate that water is safe to drink once it is running clear.

“We continue to advise customers not to drink discoloured water and to contact us directly with any reports of discolouration to help us manage the response in real time and to prioritise reactive works.”