{"id":569120,"date":"2026-07-26T15:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T15:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569120\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T15:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T15:41:07","slug":"hosepipe-ban-helping-to-restore-supplies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569120\/","title":{"rendered":"Hosepipe ban helping to restore supplies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hosepipe ban is already having an impact in restoring Uisce \u00c9ireann’s drinking water supplies, the water utility has said.<\/p>\n

Asset strategy senior manager at Uisce \u00c9ireann Mair\u00e9ad Conlon said the nationwide ban is needed to ease pressure on the water utility’s reservoirs.<\/p>\n

A nationwide hosepipe ban came into effect on Friday<\/a> but the Water Conservation Order, as it is officially called, had already been in place for the Greater Dublin Area along with parts of Wexford, Wicklow, Meath, Kildare and south Tipperary.<\/p>\n

One month ago, the seven-day average for drinking water demand was around 670 million litres in the Greater Dublin Area.<\/p>\n

Uisce \u00c9ireann’s sustainable output capacity is around 650 million litres of water per day for that region.<\/p>\n

The 20 million litre gap was bridged by increasing water treatment plant capacity and by using treated water storage.<\/p>\n

However, since the order was put in place last week, demand has reduced to below 650 million litres per day.<\/p>\n

“Our treated water storage reserves are now starting to recover and hopefully we will soon be able to reduce the output capacity of our water treatment plants down to sustainable and safer levels,” Ms Conlon said.<\/p>\n

Warm weather increases domestic water usage by approximately 20% according to Uisce \u00c9ireann.<\/p>\n

Read more:
How can a country as wet as Ireland need hosepipe bans?<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to RT\u00c9’s This Week, Ms Conlon said: “That’s really what the Water Conservation Order targets.”<\/p>\n

“That additional usage, which meant much of it is non-essential.<\/p>\n

“So that’s the watering of a garden, using the hose pipe to water your garden and to power wash,” she added.<\/p>\n

Businesses that use hosepipes for commercial reasons are exempt from the Water Conservation Order, even when using a domestic supply.<\/p>\n

Owner of WeWashWindows.ie Christopher Lockyer said his business, which operates in the greater Dublin area between Drogheda and Bray, has been impacted by the order, although they have an exemption.<\/p>\n

For window cleaning, the WeWashWindows vans bring their own purified water, but for power washing, they use the household’s water.<\/p>\n

“For power washing it [the order] has had a big impact,” Mr Lockyer said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve lost about 30-40% of our business from his hosepipe ban for power washing because people don’t want to be seen to be using hosepipes even though we are exempt,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Lockyer added that customers had called him to postpone their power washing until after the hosepipe ban is lifted at the end of August, even though he explained that businesses can still legitimately use domestic hosepipes.<\/p>\n

“It’s Ireland and nobody wants to be looked down upon by their neighbours,” he added.<\/p>\n

More than 50 Uisce \u00c9ireann supplies are under nighttime restrictions.<\/p>\n

Although households are the single biggest category of users of drinking water for Uisce \u00c9ireann, 36% of treated water is lost somewhere between the reservoir and tap due to leaks in the country’s infrastructure.<\/p>\n

A fine of \u20ac125 applies for each offence for breaching the order; however, no one has even been fined or convicted.<\/p>\n

Ms Conlon said that Uisce \u00c9ireann is appealing to people to engage with the order to allow supplies to recover.<\/p>\n

She added that when people understand what the Water Conservation Order is for, people generally adhere to it.<\/p>\n

“It’s really about personal responsibility,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s your water, it’s our water,” Ms Conlon added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hosepipe ban is already having an impact in restoring Uisce \u00c9ireann’s drinking water supplies, the water utility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-569120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}