Water mains need to be replaced across the city

Cork City Water Discolouration
Mains Water samples provided by Emily Mills on the Ballyhooley Road, Cork city.
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A TD has likened tap water in Cork city to “footage of water coming out of taps in African villages,” saying the Taoiseach has likely witnessed dirty water in his own constituency in Turners Cross.

Deputy Ken O’Flynn said that “brown, dirty, murky water” seen in “appeals for villages in Africa” is “exactly the same colour as the water coming out of the taps in Cork city.” The Cork North Central TD was speaking in the Dail today debating a motion on Uisce Éireann Infrastructure Delivery, Accountability and Repair Timelines.

He asked the Minister to reflect on how people across Cork city have for over five years “been putting up with” an unsuitable and outdated water system. A major-multimillion euro project to replace and upgrade many kilometres of lead pipe network in Cork is ongoing and expected to take years more to complete.

In it’s latest update on its leakage reduction programme, Uisce Eireann said that challenges it has faced include a vast network of below ground pipes with are old, damaged and need to be repaired or replaced. “Despite the challenges, we are making progress… We are on track to achieve a national leakage rate of 25% by the end of 2030,” it said. An interactive map on completed and in progress Uisce Eireann water projects can be found here.

Deputy O’Flynn continued: “at the current rate of delivery of Uisce Éireann across Cork, (it would take) 96 years to replace every broken pipe that has been in place since Victorian times” and raised fears that “the Minister and I will not see the day when Cork has fresh water on the northside and when the pipes will run clear in all of the northside of the city.”

Over the festive and New Year’s period, many homes in the Mayfield and Ballyvolane areas were left to rely on water tankers after major bursts left properties without water supply for days.

Also raising issues was Deputy O’Flynn’s fellow Independent Ireland TD Michael Collins, who said that his constituency of Cork South West is one of the worst affected areas in the country. He said: “Since last July, Adrigole in the Beara Peninsula has suffered up to 14 water outages, cutting off farms, schools and crèches for days at a time. One outage led to closures. Others forced families with small babies to move out temporarily… Over Christmas, they had yet another water outage, making it 15 since last July.”

He later added: “I am going to another public meeting this weekend back down in Adrigole in west Cork. I went to one two months ago also. I am no further ahead today than I was two months ago.”

Deputy Collins highlighted other West Cork communities facing issues: “Shannonvale, near Clonakilty, has endured a 26-year saga of sewage flooding a village green, which was a community field, and contaminating a local playground. Despite community action and repeated representation, transparency and timelines have been elusive.”

He added: “For a decade, untreated or poorly treated wastewater has repeatedly threatened Ballydehob Bay, part of the Roaringwater Bay and islands special area of conservation under the EU habitats directive.”

Deputy James Browne, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, thanked the numerous Deputies from across the country and said he is “working closely with Uisce Éireann to seek to ensure that the necessary resources are available to it and the challenges are tackled on a prioritised basis.”

Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy John Cummins, added: “Since the establishment of Uisce Éireann, significant improvements have been made in the delivery of water services. Hundreds of water and wastewater treatment plants have been upgraded along with the installation of thousands of kilometres of new or rehabilitated water mains.

“National leakage rates have been reduced and the overall quality of drinking water remains very high. There is, of course, more work to do and the sustained and increasing funding and support provided by the Government will enable Uisce Éireann to make continued progress in the time ahead.”