Water mains problems/shortages in Drogheda area

Lord TSC

So reading online about how some people in Drogheda have been without water for a few days now because of a water mains leak?

Touch wood, not been affected by it out at Colpe, so presume we must be on a different mains system, but apparently its stretching out all over the area?

micar

Live on the Dublin Road near the train station. The area has had no water since Friday.

Our water returned last night around 11pm.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Sounds like a serious rupture to the system.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0723/892340-water/

Lord TSC

And ours is gone now.

And they are saying won't be back till Thursday

ssmith6287

I know theres a spring near castlebellingham. do any of you know of any closer to Drogheda?

Mouhsine

Hello,
Any advise on how to get water from somewhere else?
I live in Dublin road close to Train station.
We need water (2 adults and 1 child) at least for bathroom

ssmith6287

that's my thinking too. Toilets is the main 1 especially with the warm weather. they get smelly real quick

positron

The update on Water.ie have cleared away all their previous updates and have this up now:

Due to the ongoing works to repair a burst water main supplying raw water to the Staleen water treatment plant, storage reservoir levels are now critically depleted leading to further water supply disruptions in Drogheda and parts of East Meath including Duleek, Lagavoreen, Donore, Ashbourne, Stamullen, Kentstown, Kilbride, Ratoath and Ardcath.

Repair works for this region have an estimated completion date of 27 July.

In addition temporary water stations are provided from 10.00am at the following locations for the public to take water:

Stameen on the Dublin Road
Termonabbey
Marleys Lane
Bóthar Brugha or Hardmans Gardens
Ballsgrove shops
Shop St North Quay

We would remind customers to bring clean containers, and as a precautionary measure to boil water taken from these stations before use.

Irish Water and Louth County Council would like to thank the public for their patience, and we apologise for the ongoing inconvenience while crews work to restore supply to all affected areas as soon as possible.

Irish Water is asking customers in these areas to conserve water until further notice.

When was the last time any part of the country was out of water for this long?

ssmith6287

the cynic in me is preparing for a "well we told you we needed more investment and you refused to pay"

It almost feels like IW are taking an Enron approach to creating demand.

BetsyEllen

Is there anywhere in Drogheda selling 5L bottles of water?

I struggled to get much yesterday, could only get a 6 pack of small bottles in Tesco which I've used.

Mouhsine

They should get more people to work on it around the clock and get it done asap

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Mouhsine wrote: »

They should get more people to work on it around the clock and get it done asap

In fairness, only so many can work in a hole at once. They are working flat out on it. What more do you want?

BetsyEllen

Tesco Extra now have the 5L bottles for €1.29 - just got 4 in there

_Brian

ssmith6287 wrote: »

the cynic in me is preparing for a "well we told you we needed more investment and you refused to pay"

It almost feels like IW are taking an Enron approach to creating demand.

I would imagine that this will become a common enough problem in coming years. Perhaps it was going to happen anyway but the system won't see the investment it would have if the charges were being collected. It would take too steep a rise on PAYE to take on the same funding so the system will be left to creak along.

The whole charges thing was poorly handled, but I fully support charges for water.

eeguy

A friend works for IW in the North East and said the whole system was on the brink of collapse for years.

Substandard repairs, hundreds of leaks and an infrastructure that wasn't built to cope with the explosion of housing and industry during the boom years.

While im not surprised something like this has happened I'm sure the Can't Pay Won't Pay brigade will be out using this against IW.

Wheeliebin30

I'm sure Paul Murphy and rich boy Barrett are bothered about those unfortunate people as they sit in their big baths in their nice houses paid for by the tax payer's.

But once they made their point and got their heads on the news that's all that matters.

Lord TSC

I read that the pipe needs to be replaced but its not there's a spare one lying round, so it will be tomorrow evening before they even get the replacement parts

Fergus O'Dowd saying there's loads more water tanks on their way.

BetsyEllen wrote: »

Is there anywhere in Drogheda selling 5L bottles of water?

I struggled to get much yesterday, could only get a 6 pack of small bottles in Tesco which I've used.

Tesco, Aldi and Lidl were apparently out of water last night.

Drove up to Balbriggan this morning, grabbed 12 six packs of 1.5l, but they had no 5l bottles and were starting to strain in terms of how much they'd left

Hitman3000

I believe a specialist firm in Belfast is engineering the piece of pipe required. Whether charges or not were present would have made no difference in this case. Although no reason that should stop anyone trying to score points.

dense

_Brian wrote: »

I would imagine that this will become a common enough problem in coming years. Perhaps it was going to happen anyway but the system won't see the investment it would have if the charges were being collected. It would take too steep a rise on PAYE to take on the same funding so the system will be left to creak along.

The whole charges thing was poorly handled, but I fully support charges for water.

The water charges were only ever intended to replace (not increase) the funding available for water from the exchequer.
Swapping one source of funding for another wasn't going to make any difference when that funding is then wasted or mismanaged by those who get it.
If anything it's made matters worse.
Money that was wasted on meters, laughing yoga and "brand awareness" is all money that should have been invested in the physical infrastructure. They didn't do that and look what's happening.

Jessie Weak Transition

Jessie Weak Transition wrote: »

In fairness, only so many can work in a hole at once. They are working flat out on it. What more do you want?

I don't think they are actually working flat-out on the problem. Whatever about the physics of fitting workers into a hole, if there was the skilled workers available, could they not authorise another crew to work through the night/late evening? (Not the same crew as the day, for those worrying about the worker's health and well-being). That maybe because this is ongoing since Friday now, it demands more than a 9-5 approach at this stage?

However, if there is only a limited amount of people with the skills to fix and work on the problem, that idea would be a non-runner. If it's simply a matter of authorising the money to fund an extra crew, then it should have been done by now.

eeguy wrote: »

A friend works for IW in the North East and said the whole system was on the brink of collapse for years.

Substandard repairs, hundreds of leaks and an infrastructure that wasn't built to cope with the explosion of housing and industry during the boom years.

While im not surprised something like this has happened I'm sure the Can't Pay Won't Pay brigade will be out using this against IW.

Quite the opposite, from the sentiment I'm picking up online so far in various comments sections and fora. I've seen more of the "Sure didn't they assault IW contracters in Drogheda? Let them rot" - "Water in Drogheda gone? That'll hardly make a difference", those kind of comments, than the 'Can't Pay, Won't Pay' brigade using this against Irish Water. We really can be a nasty, detached bunch of bastards when we sit down at a keyboard.

I'd imagine that this episode will show many people, who didn't realise/care previously, that water doesn't magically form when we turn the tap on, and the infrastructure badly needs investment. It's one thing well-paid politicians and executives telling us we must pay for water on the television - It's another thing living it, to see and experience your water cut off for 4+ days because of the decades-old, substandard infrastructure.

Irish Water/the government have an opportunity here to show the rest of the country why we need to invest in our water supply. However, too much time will be spent in the aftermath shít-flinging from side to side and not doing anything overly-productive, while we kick the can further down the road.

To go on further - As a resident of the Drogheda area, I'm used to my water getting cut off several times per year. Often this will just last for a span of hours during the day, but a disruption to the water supply is not uncommon where I live. From what eeguy said about his IW worker friend, and what I've read from similar sources elsewhere online, it seems that the system is not fit for purpose in the Drogheda area.

Why then, are there houses getting flung up in areas which are already putting the infrastructure under pressure? Not just the water infrastructure, but areas where roads are already chock-a-block with traffic and where schools are already out the door with students? It seems that the developers/planners just need a bit of land to build the house on, and there is where forward/social planning starts and ends.

It all results in something like we've experienced in the last 4 days, and something we'll probably experience again before the year is out.

Yes, there are lessons to be learned here, and some of the 'Can't Pay, Won't Pay' collective should observe some of them. However, we really should be using this to look at the bigger picture - As it is, Drogheda and its infrastructure is under immense pressure. Before heaping onto this with new developments, maybe time should be spent in upgrading and repairing this infrastucture to suit the ambition of the developers and planners who are currently flat-out.

ssmith6287

its an egg and chicken dilemma. The government will say people need to pay to upgrade these pipes, the people will say I don't want to pay until the system is fit for purpose. Personally I believe we should pay for water, my only gripe is I have to buy bottled water weekly because the water from my tap is horrible, don't know if that would be fixed with pipe upgrade, no doubt its clean

Lord TSC

Water back, albeit very weakly, in Grange Rath. Filling up some pots and stuff cause I worry it's only temporary.

gebbel

Heard that the water temporarily returned earlier...and at least may have filled depleted water tanks. Old Slane Road area. Not a drip right now. I'm resigned to it being Thursday evening before things start returning to normal.

Water returned for a while. Depending on your area, it could be due to come on soon...

https://www.water.ie/news/irish-water-mobilises-wat/index.xml

flazio

dense wrote: »

The water charges were only ever intended to replace (not increase) the funding available for water from the exchequer.
Swapping one source of funding for another wasn't going to make any difference when that funding is then wasted or mismanaged by those who get it.
If anything it's made matters worse.
Money that was wasted on meters, laughing yoga and "brand awareness" is all money that should have been invested in the physical infrastructure. They didn't do that and look what's happening.

It was also intended to make that funding more transparent. You pay motor tax, rates, PAYE etc, that money could go anywhere(although motor tax should remain within transport infrastructure. You pay water charges that money is ring fenced for water infrastructure, the incoming money is accounted for and published and the expenditure is published and questioned if it appears extortionate.

Lord TSC

Lot of new water stations set up round Grange Rath, Bettystown, morningtown, etc.

Still, the advice is to poop into bags and put them into the bin :rolleyes:

Mr Magnolia

I'd heard that the spool piece will be fabricated by tomorrow evening, installed Wednesday and commissioned/energised Thursday. Perhaps it was just poor spokemanship but why on earth is this not being worked on 24/7?

Im not affected myself but obviously hope it's repaired as quickly as possible for the critical services, businesses and all that are doing without.

Slanty

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

I'd heard that the spool piece will be fabricated by tomorrow evening, installed Wednesday and commissioned/energised Thursday. Perhaps it was just poor spokemanship but why on earth is this not being worked on 24/7?

Im not affected myself but obviously hope it's repaired as quickly as possible for the critical services, businesses and all that are doing without.

It is being worked on 24/7. The new insert is nearly a meter diameter. Not many places in Ireland can roll steel that size. Due to the age of the existing pipe the new insert has to be custom made.
A modified piece failed on Sunday.

Dingatron

Slanty wrote: »

It is being worked on 24/7. The new insert is nearly a meter diameter. Not many places in Ireland can roll steel that size. Due to the age of the existing pipe the new insert has to be custom made.
A modified piece failed on Sunday.

Are they certain the new piece will work and is there a Plan B if it doesn't?

Slanty

Dingatron wrote: »

Are they certain the new piece will work and is there a Plan B if it doesn't?

Yes the new piece will work. Its specially designed for this job. There should be no need for a plan B.
Dublin council have fittings that can be inserted in a couple of hours when this happens but not for this size pipe.

poemboy

If one is out of pocket due to having to buy potable water during this latest Irish Water service failure what are the mechanics for reclaiming said expenses?