Five days without water supply in Rahoon

BoscoMcLovin

As I sit down to write it is Tuesday morning, our fifth successive day with no water supply in Rahoon. We began to get a trickle from the kitchen tap just before 1am last night, but it stopped again shortly after 6am. Pressure never climbed high enough to fill the tank in the attic, and so we can't use the shower, flush toilets or wash clothes. The tank hasn't been full since last Thursday night. To be clear, this is not a common occurrence for us, and our pipes are not damaged or frozen. Until quite recently we haven't had any significant problems with our water supply in over 30 years.

Ciarán Hayes for the Galway City Council was kind enough to explain the cause to the listeners of Galway Bay FM yesterday. Due to high demand the Clifton Hill reservoir isn't filling up at night as it should. This reservoir acts as a water tower for the west side of the city. It typically fills at night and drains slowly during the day at times of peak water demand, thus ensuring consistent supply throughout the day at a sufficient pressure. At present water from this reservoir is being consumed faster than it can be replaced. If it empties, water supply to the west side of the city is disrupted.

To prevent the reservoir from emptying the Council have reduced the flow of water from the reservoir by reducing water pressure. This slows down the rate at which water is lost to leaks and running taps, and so helps to keep the reservoir topped up. Sounds fair enough, right? Wrong!

By reducing water pressure to the extent they have the council have implemented a system of unfair water rationing. If you live on low ground you get all the water you want throughout the day. You are free to use or waste as much water as you see fit. If you're unfortunate enough to live on high ground or are connected to an 'unlucky' point on the mains you get no water at all during daylight hours, and only a trickle in the middle of the night. In effect, they have implemented a water lottery, where the winners get all the water they want and the losers get nothing.

I find it difficult to express the rage I feel at this action. A stones throw away my neighbour was abundant water, so much so he was surprised to learn yesterday that we had any problem. While our houses are at the same altitude and are located in the same housing estate, our feeder pipe is connected to a different part of the system. His comes via a pipe in the housing estate, ours from a pipe out on the main Rahoon road, a fact I am aware of only because my father was involved with the building of our house. Our neighbour’s pipe is lucky, ours isn't. In no way is the pain of current water supply problems being shared fairly - water has been cut off for the unlucky few, so that the many can go about their day blissfully unaware of any problems.

There are better and fairer ways to distribute the water available. The supply could, for example, be switched off completely for a period today. This would allow the reservoir to fill sufficiently to supply water at full pressure to everyone for a few hours tonight, allowing those of us affected to take a shower and wash some clothes. It would also help to raise awareness of ongoing supply problems and encourage active conservation.

As things stand you're either a winner or a loser in the Council's water lottery, and my biggest fear is that this will become the standard approach the Council takes when dealing with this type of problem in future. I am dreading this happening again at Christmas, with family in the house and no water to wash dishes or flush a toilet.

Sponge Bob

I reckon it will come back tonight or tomorrow night once

a) they fix the mains leaks over your side.
b) people stop running taps as the night time temperature rises...thereby giving the system a better chance to fill.

toadfly

I feel your pain, we were without water for three weeks last January. Disaster. Hope it comes back for ye soon.

We were lucky that we had gym membership so were fine for showers. We got water for the toilets from friends and from work but it was a pain in the hole.

Fey!

Last year they said that part of the problem was people running their taps all night so that their pipes wouldn't freeze; could the same thing be happening again and affecting your flow?

inisboffin

Same for us, we have water now, but quite low pressure. Neighbour below us grand, and up the road, slightly higher elevation has none!:(

BoscoMcLovin

Fey! wrote: »

Last year they said that part of the problem was people running their taps all night so that their pipes wouldn't freeze; could the same thing be happening again and affecting your flow?

The cause of increased water demand is likely a combination of people running taps to prevent freezing, and new water leaks resulting from the cold weather. It's not the cause of the water shortage I question, it's the action the council has taken as a result of those problems that angers me.

If they were to switch off the water across the west side for even a few hours there would be uproar, so instead they've taken the easy way out and reduced pressure. My blood was boiling listening to Mr. Hayes on the radio this morning, continuing in his claims that 'Some houses have only a trickle' and going so far as to state that some of those who are reporting problems are actually suffering from frozen pipes. This may well be true, but to make these claims without once admitting that many hadn't seen a trickle of water during daylight hours since last Friday is dishonest and misleading.

I was out at 9am on Sunday looking for a flowing public tap to fill a few containers so that I could flush toilets that hadn’t been flushed since Friday night. Not an easy task with every tap in every petrol station I tried at the time frozen solid. If there was even a trickle from our kitchen tap at the time, as Mr. Hayes seemed to claim as the worst effect of his pressure reduction, then I would most certainly not have been down on the prom twice on Sunday morning filling containers from a public tap.

Those irresponsible few who are running their taps, if living on low ground, have no incentive at present to switch off those taps. Unless they listen to local radio they may not even be aware that it's causing a problem in Galway. How many of those people would immediately stop wasting water if their own water was turned off for even a few hours? They're causing the pain but at present only those of us on high ground are feeling it.
As I write we are now seeing a trickle from our kitchen tap for the first time since 6am.

I have little confidence that it will last, so I’m off to fill a few buckets.

Update @ 7pm: The trickle that started in early afternoon was steady for a while, and for a few minutes pressure was high enough for the attic tank to start filling. From about 5pm or so the flow again reduced to a trickle, and has now stopped.

wet-paint

Sorry to hear it Bosco, tha'ts pretty ****.

RDM_83 again

Thats pretty crapy thought the water was back on across the area when we got water back with enough pressure to fill the taanks (aras bun caise think the water tanks were on the roof). and understand annoyance too when walking 2 minutes accross road to use full water supply

BoscoMcLovin

By way of update - the tank in the attic filled at a trickle on Tuesday night, and for the most part the pressure has been high enough to keep it topped-up since.

Many thanks for the offers via private message from a few of you offering a place to fill containers nearby. It's very kind and very much appreciated. As it turned out one of our neighbours quite close by had uninterupted water all along, though we didn't realise that until Monday. If it happens again we can fill up there.