Westmeath County Council refuse to help with frozen pipes

jmcc99_98

I am living in the Avenue Lakepoint in Mullingar, We have had no water for the past few days and now the heating has stopped (I dunno if this is related to the water being frozen - we have an oil burner/boiler outside) or maybe I am just out of oil.

I rang the council and they were *uck all help. I couldnt find the external stop cock outside because of the snow. We havent a drop of water in the house at the moment. Tried to go down to the Stand Pipe at the bottom of the Avenue last night to get a bucket of water for the cisterns etc but it seems to have been removed.

My wife is 7 months pregnant and we also have a 4 year old in the house.

Is there anything I can do to help the situation or work out whether the frozen pipes are outside or inside?

Do I turn off the stop cock under the sink?

Would the pipes freezing cause my OFCH to fail?

Any advice/help greatly appreciated

Saint_Mel

As far as I know the stand pipes are only available between 10.00am and 4.00pm. Which isnt of much use to people who are in work!

Only thing I can say is if you get some hot water and pour it around the path in front of your driveway you might be able to locate the hatch for the stopcock.

LittleMissEmma

Ciar0468 wrote: »

Hi all,

An update on my progress:

Plummer came, cut open pavement, opened pipe, NO WATER. Opened mains on road, FROZEN. No styrofoam or any other form on insulation down there either. Plumer says pipes may be frozen under road or pavement. Nobody knows for how far.

There is no chance of me getting any water back at all.
This is because :
1: The Builders did not lay the pipes deep enough.
2: The Council did not check the work before connecting to the mains as they are required to do.
3:Even if i can thaw the pipes out by use of heat torch or other means, my pipes will freeze again at night because the council are turning the water off.

I am so angry that I and a lot of other people are without water as a direct result of the council turning the water supply off at night.

I dont understand how they can be allowed to make a decision like that.

I live in Ard Grainne and haven't had water since last wensday. I'm pregnant and due next Friday, or was, I've had some signs of labor and am terrified I'll go into labor in the next day or two.
Myself and my other half can't wait for our baby, but bloody hell! I don't want him or her born into this mess!!

I contacted the concil on several occassions since the water was cut and not one of them were helpful.

Each of them suggested taking a heater to the pipes outside, then they said we have a tanker in Kilbeggan, which is no use to us, because we don't drive.
Finally yesterday we were told by some pompous idiot that Ard Grainne is a private Estate and out water issues aren't their problem!!

I don't give a rats ass what they say! It is their problem!:mad:

tubos

LittleMissEmma wrote: »

Finally yesterday we were told by some pompous idiot that Ard Grainne is a private Estate and out water issues aren't their problem!!

I don't give a rats ass what they say! It is their problem!:mad:

Once the estate has been handed over to the council from the developer then it is their problem. If it hasn't been handed over then it is up to the developer to fix. This can be a problem with developers who haven't completed estates and have left them idle. In the case of Woodville, the council hadn't taken over the estate at a stage when the estate had been built for 8 years!! The whole business of who is responsible is a nightmare for people living in these estates who have had problems with the roads/lighting/sewerage etc. Ring your local council rep, whoever you voted for. Is there a residents committee?

outeverynite

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/homes-threatened-with-water-cuts-in-effort-to-save-supplies-2009367.html Irish Independent - First paragraph

"HOUSEHOLDERS are facing the nightmare prospect of water being cut off as supplies are running low. "

Eh hello 17 days without water now....nightmare "SITUATION" not prospect down here in Mullingar!!!

athlone M

I live in athlone and I too have no water coming up on 11 days now and I am getting completely and utterly browned off of it. We got up on Sat 2nd of Jan to no water whch was nothing new due to the fact that the council were turning off the water to conserve water but usually it would come back about 9.30 ish but by about 3.30 after several kettles of hot water there was no sign of the water coming back and I went next door to find out if my neighbours had any water and they had none either so I went accross the street and they had water so I went to the chairman of the residents association and he gave me a number to ring when I rang this number I was told that I wasn't the only person who had contacted him from that area and they were going down to flush out the system and for me to call him back in an hour and he would have some news for me, when I rang him back he said they had flushed the system but this didn't resolve anything and they had checked the hydrant in our estate and there was water in it so it was a case of a frozen pipe somewhere and they would try to flush the system again in the morning and see would this help. The next morning I rang the emergency nimber again and was told that yet again the system was flushed but this wasn't solving the problem and that I would have to just wait until my pipes thawed. I then asked if there was going to be any water brought to the affeceted areas and was told that the engineer was asked if this would ahppen at the beginning of the cold snap and the engineers reply was for affected households to get water from their neighbour, which is ridiculous when my neighbour doesn't have any water either, when I pointed this, I was given the engineers name and was told to make a complaint to him.
On Monday(4th) I rang to speak to the engineer but when I told his secretary why I was ringing he wasn't taking any calls on this subjhect and when I explained to his receptionist that I had no water and either did my neighbours and that I was new to the town and didn't know too many people and had no way of getting water and wanted to know if there would be alternative arrangements made she put me on hold while she spoke to the engineer,after which she told me ther must be someone in my estate that could give me a kettle of hot water down my stop cock (like we wouldn't have tried that) when I pointed out to her that my husband had tried that on numerous occasions she washed her hands of it and when I pointed out that I had 2 young children (8months and almost 2) and needed water she took my name and address and mobile number and said that the men were flat out but as soon as they got a chance they would call to my house to see if there was anything they could do. After this infuriating conversation I emailed several of our local councillors which only 2 repiled to, both of which said they would speak to the engineer and get back to me and 1 of them made no more contact but the other one repiled the following day saying that he had spoken to the engineer and that the engineer had yet again said there would be no alternative water supply provided and that prior to this weather he had done a random poll on residents and asked them should they be affected by frozen pipes would they rather go to their neighbours for water or would the prefer to collect water from a designated point in the town and the majority of residents had said they would prefer to go their neighbour.
That Thursday (7th) there was a pair council workers at my neighbours stop cock where and I remarked to them not to forget mine and I was told by one of them that they were waiting for a heater to come down to thaw the pipes, as of today were still waiting.
This morning when I got up and saw there was a great thaw was hopeful that our water would return today but no such luck and once again I rang the council after noticing that my neighbour had water to check if maybe there was a mains leak and was told that there wasn't and was told that there was a man up in our estate the past couple of days with water, and was asked had I not been contacted and I said I hadn't yet again my name address and number was taken and was told should my water not return in the next few days to get back to them.
It's totally ridculous that so many households are affected by frozen pipes and cutting off one of the major human necessities for life and it seems like nobody cares

mandz

Am I the only one who's growing tired of hearing the reports on how local authorities are only beginning to ration water supplies around the country on the news and the fact that parts of Westmeath (sounding like a lot of it) have had not water for weeks hasn't been mentioned once?! If it has been mentioned then I apologise as I appear to have missed it.

Lynfo

No mandz, you're certainly not alone in that. I'm so bloody well angry with the council over all this.

dizzydiesel

The media make it sound as if the problem only occurred yesterday (when Dublin was hit)
I'm on day 8 - not a drop. Not a mention of Westmeath rationing. Unbelievable.

120_Minutes

The reason the pipes in ard grainne are not low enough is thus:

when the estate was being built they were originally going to use moates own resevoir, but due to its location and that of ard grainne's (height issue, the estate is higher than the resevoir) they couldnt place the pipes as low as they wanted, as they'd get no water at all. low and behold, when they laid the pipes they STILL got no water from the resevoir, it was still too low. so they had to get water from mullingar. rather than re lay the pipes at the correct depth, they left them as is, leading to the current situation.

hope that helps!

LittleMissEmma

tubos wrote: »

Once the estate has been handed over to the council from the developer then it is their problem. If it hasn't been handed over then it is up to the developer to fix. This can be a problem with developers who haven't completed estates and have left them idle. In the case of Woodville, the council hadn't taken over the estate at a stage when the estate had been built for 8 years!! The whole business of who is responsible is a nightmare for people living in these estates who have had problems with the roads/lighting/sewerage etc. Ring your local council rep, whoever you voted for. Is there a residents committee?

I contacted DLS who are over almost all of the houses in Ard Grainne. Apparently according to them the problem is the council's, so I presume this estate was handed over to them.
I have rung my council rep and believe me he was no help whatsoever. Gave me practically the same dull monotoned response as the last idiot and couple of Bimbos I have spoken to, answering the phone and when they hear my problem I get a big "oh-for-God-sake" sigh and a snooty manner when they repeat the same useless bull I heard the day before!!

The 22nd of January I am due my baby and sweet Jesus if the waters not back..What the hell am I suppose to do..?!

It's been hard enough keeping the house clean running back and forth from my Aunt who is five minutes down the road and getting bottles.
My God, the stupidity of the situation has made simple everyday tasks a nightmare!!

The stress has me absolutely drained! :(

Themadhouse

Nice new stand pipe appeared in Ardleigh and low and behold it's spewing water everywhere.... It's good to see the council looking after our low water supplies.....
Also an underground leak on my road the council was informed about almost 2 weeks ago and they still have not fixed it.:eek:

We have been to council, a few times. Been in contact with councilor, TD, local rag. What next?

wally69

Hi, we live in gleann petit also, do u have water back yet?

Cpt Beefheart

RTE are coming to Lakepoint in Mullingar tomorrow (14th) at 11 am and the Residents Association are looking for people who are still without water and have been for a while to be interviewed to highlight plight.

mandz

Cpt Beefheart wrote: »

RTE are coming to Lakepoint in Mullingar tomorrow (14th) at 11 am and the Residents Association are looking for people who are still without water and have been for a while to be interviewed to highlight plight.

They must have seen my post :D

I wish I could take tomorrow off work and talk to them but I think I'd be rumbled chatting to rte if I took a sickie

boris232

I believe that the Avenue in Greenpark has been without water since before Christmas. That nearly 3 weeks.

Imagine if that was in Dublin. The public outcry would be huge. I do believe that our Dublin based media are as useless as the Council, National Emergency Committee, Taoiseach............:(:mad:

TomTom

I do sympathise with people without water for so long, especially mandz, I had the same situation with my wife being pregnant and the muppets on a site across the road cutting off the water or on some days dirty water coming from my taps.

There are many people complaining about RTEs coverage nationally as I am sure people have heard from texts into Today FM and independent stations during the week. I was stuck in that bad snow that hit the M6 last night and when I got into work all they were talking about was snow fall in Sandyford and nothing about flooding in Cork, mad snow in Offaly or no water in Westmeath.

There are two situation here, issues with private estate water and council managed estates. I am sure that the council will resolve all issues 'eventually' but estates that are not managed by them will be the very bottom of their list. If the council can prove that there is a water supply getting to the estate and they do not manage the estate they will most likly move on to work on the next connection.
If you are in a council managed estate then my recommendation is to sit on your local councillor, turn up at his/her clinic/office for water (don't harass their family, my father was a councillor and people do think this is acceptable). They are voted into to office to represent you, the people working in the county council are public servants doing they day to day job they cannot change the work flow of the council without authorisation. Pressure needs to be applied from the top down and going to a TD or Senator is only going to result in a letter being sent form them to your local councillor. Contact any councillor you can and remind these people that at the next local election it is you who will decide their faith and to get off their arse and get the county manager to re-prioritise what ever the hell they are doing.

janjan

hi all
we have no water since christmas day!! when we rang the council, the man on the phone who was part of the emergency service for the council, told us that because lakepoint park was not handed over to the council that the water problems was a problem we had to sort out ourselves!!. and to get a plumber to fix the problem!! what can a plumber do??

I am absolutely fuming!!! then of course when the houses in the avenue run out of water, the tap on the street appears!!! I assume because their houses are part of the council.

how dare they treat us like this! Has anyone got intouch with DARACOM?
Only for the lads who are part of the residence committee and the kind gentle man on our road who gave us large water containers we would be in a worse situation. My husband has to fill our tank in the attic each evening making about 6 trips to the tap on the avenue!!

By the way if anyone cant use their washing machine!! I have filled my washing machine with water manually, by putting the water in the detergent drawer! it works!!!

janjan

i rang a local councillor over the christmas, left a message on his phone, but he didnt even bother to ring back!!! so i wont be voting for him in the next election!!!! he should of least rang to see what the situation was even though he probably couldnt do anything!!

Lynfo

janjan wrote: »

i rang a local councillor over the christmas, left a message on his phone, but he didnt even bother to ring back!!! so i wont be voting for him in the next election!!!! he should of least rang to see what the situation was even though he probably couldnt do anything!!

Same here, rang TD on Tuesday, left a message and haven't heard a thing back. In saying that though, 2 other TDs did call me back, one seemed to want to chat more than anything, the other was telling me he was very sorry but there was nothing he could do.
I know I'm only day 5 of no water, compared to some of you that's nothing, but I'm miserable.

kunob

Same problem up here in Westmeath (near Kells), no water since 8 January. the spur from the stop cock in the pavement to my house is frozen. it has been thawing since Monday, but temperatures only max 2 degrees, so lawn is still frozen. be careful: when the water came back for a friend, it blew 8 pipes, taps, valves in his house through the sudden pressure. i turned my main stop cock in the house off and will turn it on very carefully when the ground is thawed. Am thinking of putting a coal fire on my front lawn.... :-(

Lynfo

kunob wrote: »

when the water came back for a friend, it blew 8 pipes, taps, valves in his house through the sudden pressure. (

Crap. This is what's worrying me.

Lizheen

Has anyone's water in Mullingar come back yet? Is the thaw kicking in? Mine's not back...

Themadhouse

Lynfo wrote: »

Crap. This is what's worrying me.

Me too. Meant to to close the stopcock under the sink this morn but forgot. Just hoping that when it does come back it'll be slow and that after 20 days there will be no water in my system that has frozen!

LittleMissEmma

:mad:

Okay, that's it!! I've had it!!
The pipes couldn't possibly be still frozen, it's bloody 5 degrees outside and the place is thawed!!!!!!!! And yet, still NO WATER!!!!!!!!! I'm going inzane!! I tried contacting the council again today but they're not answering.
I've a friend in Dublin whos been without water for 5 days now, but not because of the cold, the council told her it was to ration water.

Last I checked, rationing wasn't taking it altogether.....

iceman777

My water has been gone for 13 days in Athlone and I do not expect the thaw to be ready until maybe Saturday or Sunday if the current temperature remains constant.

Do not expect 1-2 days of this weather to thaw your pipes as it must penetrate the ground constantly first. don't forget that the soil must become soft beforehand.

We just have to be patient and wait it out until the weekend.

muckety

Lynfo wrote: »

Crap. This is what's worrying me.

Someone told me that you should turn off your water outside at source and drain the pipes inside. Then when the water is turned back on you should not have a problem - but I'm not an expert so you should check this with a plumber!

outeverynite

My water is back!!!!!! I'm in Ardleigh...today was day 19, or was it 20, without water...came home there and it was flowing from the tap...cannot believe it's back...hopefully it stays now...

Lizheen

Outeverynite: Lucky you! Can we all come round for showers???

Themadhouse

outeverynite wrote: »

My water is back!!!!!! I'm in Ardleigh...today was day 19, or was it 20, without water...came home there and it was flowing from the tap...cannot believe it's back...hopefully it stays now...

Cool! Hopefully it'll hit us very soon!