Boil water notice remains in place around Aughrim

RESIDENTS in Aughrim and Annacurra had an added pressure to contend with during the snow when a boil water notice was issued on Thursday affecting approximately 1900 people.

Irish Water outlined that a mechanical failure of the chlorination system had occurred at the local plant, due to the cold weather, and that the severe conditions resulted in a delay in getting engineers out to the site. It was outlined that residents should boil water before it was consumed or used for cooking, as there was no guarantee that the drinking water was adequately disinfected during the mechanical failure. A spokesperson for Irish Water outlined yesterday, Tuesday that the boil water notice is expected to be soon removed.

‘Repairs and servicing of the Chlorine Disinfection pumps was undertaken on Sunday evening and the chlorine dosing system have been working ever since. A sampling programme of the network have been implemented and based on results from the sampling programme, we will be confident that the BWN can be removed shortly,’ she said.

In Barndarrig, a boil water notice was issued on Friday, affecting 191 people and lifted on Monday. This was also as a result of a mechanical failure in the chlorination system, namely the freezing of a sample line within the plant.

Across the county various householders in different communities lost water due to frozen and burst pipes, but Irish Water says that it does not yet have an overall figure for the number of households affected.

‘Wicklow County Council working on behalf of Irish Water, have been working over the weekend to restore access to water treatment plant and water storage reservoirs. Any leaks to have been identified by WCC and the public have been dealt with and as more leaks become visible they are actioned to reduce leakage and allow storage levels in the reservoirs to be restored,’ the spokesperson said.