No Water Tonight

Solair

Well, if the city had properly enforced water regulations this wouldn't be an issue.

i.e. pipes must be X cm deep, to prevent freezing.

The single biggest issue is very shallowly buried pipes in housing estates and exposed surface-mounted outdoor pipes for things like outdoor taps.

There doesn't seem to be a huge problem with the actual city mains.

All that stuff has to be regulated for, and regulations have to be enforced.

However, we do live in a state run purely in the interests of property developers making a fast buck, so that's not likely to happen.

There were surveys of European capitals and Dublin rated amongst the worst in terms of building energy use. Cork would obviously be quite similar as the regs are the same.

There's something seriously wrong with a mentality which allows regulation / lack of regulation which is against the interest of the greater good.

What we are seeing is the consequences several decades of what is at best incompetence and at worst corruption.

The other difference, is that in most of Europe and the United States, water is metered. So, if you did have a leak you'd damn well fix it or face a massive water bill.

If you've a leak in your house, you normally turn off the water at the mains and call a plumber. In Ireland, you let it run down the drain for a few weeks and consider calling a plumber.

In most houses it's not even possible to isolate a faulty fitting.

e.g. in France, all sinks, toilets, baths, etc have little isolating valves (like what you have for hooking up your washing machine) under the tap.

This means you can change the fitting yourself quite easily without calling in the plumber, and it also means that if, for example, your toilet is leaking water into the bowl, you can switch it off locally until a plumber can get there.

In Ireland the pipe just goes straight into the tap / toilet etc and there's nothing you can do if there's a problem other than let the water flow down the drain.


Also, on the water cut off times.

Our water went off at 9pm and didn't come back on again until 12pm .... very convenient.

There is a significant time lag on the supplies to the higher parts of the city as they take anything up to 6 hours to pressurise enough to allow the water to flow.

I personally think they should avoid switching these areas off as they take so long to come back on again.

IF they need to isolate supplies to fill reservoirs over night, perhaps they should stick to switching off the flat parts of the city?