A €1.5 million scheme to solve water-outage problems in Westbury and Parteen will begin at the end of January.
That’s according to information supplied to local Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe, who was told by Irish Water that work on the project will start on January 24.
In 2020 the area suffered 15 outages and, as shops ran out of bottled water, the council had to send out trucks so householders could fill empty containers with water.
Work will be carried out by night to replace the decades-old, leak-prone pipes with new ductile iron pipes, to eliminate the persistent leakage issue impacting homeowners in the area.
“I live in this locality myself and in recent years, we have become accustomed to having water outages at least once a month,” said Deputy Crowe.
“When the water goes, people have to try to buy bottled water from the supermarkets but after short periods, this invariably sells out and the council then come down with water tanks from which people fill buckets and cannisters.
“It’s hard to believe, in the 21st century, that Westbury – which is Munster’s largest housing estate – could be served with such decrepit water mains.
“Once this pipeline is fitted, water outages should become a thing of the past for almost 5,000 local residents.
He said he is appealing to Irish Water to fast-track Phase 2 of planned water mains improvements in South Clare, to bring the new water pipe beyond Larkin’s Cross so that it goes as far as O’Connor’s Cross in Parteen.
