IRISH WATER:WE WILL CHECK YOUR BACK GARDEN FOR POOLS AND HOSES
As drought spreads, utility warns against excessive waste of supplies
WITH water shortages reaching crisis point, Irish Water has warned it can enter into private properties without permission to check for excess wastage.
The utility has the power to breach householders’ properties anywhere and it will enforce this authority in the Dublin area if it suspects people are flouting the hosepipe ban by filling garden pools, for example.
And with the good weather set to continue, Irish Water is expected to look at enforcing this measure in several areas.
The utility is preparing ‘drought orders’ for other parts of the country with critically low levels of water that will mean
restrictions on non-essential water usage. This will come on top of the almost 40 night-time water bans currently in place countrywide.
With the hosepipe ban coming into effect in the capital today, the utility said it will be checking water meters to make sure owners are not using excessive amounts of water.
Under Section 54 (3) of the 2007 Water Services Act, Irish Water can demand a homeowner or business undertake immediate action to stop leaks or other wastage of water on their property.
If the person ignores that demand, Irish Water can enter the property, without order, and stop the wastage itself.
It can then charge the person for ‘any investigations or enforcement undertaken by it’ to stop the wastage. The Government can set ‘the powers of entry and investigation’ by Irish Water in each case and can set a time limit for compliance before they enter the property.
Speaking from New York last night, the Taoiseach said that he would prefer people to voluntarily turn off hoses in Dublin so that the Government does not have to rely on fines.
‘The law allows for penalties available to allow us to prosecute, including fines. But that’s not an approach we think we will work best,’ Leo Varadkar said. ‘We think asking people to be conscious of it, to be good citizens, to heed the advice being given by turning off hosepipes and taps is the best approach.’
irish Water last night warned that while it does not want to take people to court, it will
‘Leaks’ can be excessive use
‘review its options’ if the rule is continuously breached – combined with the refusal to pay on-the-spot fines it hands out.
Water users in the greater Dublin area will be slapped with a hefty fine of €125 if they are caught using a hose during the month-long ban starting today.
People are also being encouraged to report their neighbours or any other water user if they witness them using a hosepipe.
The public are also being urged to report any leaks they see on the public water network and to repair private-site leaks in homes and businesses.
With a status yellow high-temperature weather warning in place for most of the country until 9pm tonight and mainly clear skies forecast for the coming days, the risk of the drought spreading has heightened.
Irish Water said: ‘We expect the vast majority of people will adhere to the Dublin Water Conservation Order and that there will be very few prosecutions while the order is in force. Our domestic and non-domestic meters are identifying private-side leaks and we are working with householders to address these leaks in properties and offering assistance to get them repaired. Regulatory powers are available to address chronic leaks where owners do not engage with us and do not respond to multiple notifications,’ it warned last night.
‘Leaks’ can be interpreted to include any excessive use or inexplicable use of water, an Irish Water official confirmed.
It also confirmed that the ban on washing cars with a hose only applies to a ‘domestic hosepipe’ and not to garages, while people will still be allowed to fill swimming pools and padding pools – but only if they fill it with buckets filled from a tap and do not use hoses. Hoses can be used to fill garden ponds only if it contains fish – with one official confirming that people could get around the ban by ordering fish for their pond.
Other areas of the country should also expect to be hit with a hosepipe ban, with Irish Water managing director Jerry Grant saying yesterday that an extension is likely. Some 100 water supplies have been identified nationwide as being at risk due to high consumption.
‘I think it’s important that we should signal to schemes across the country that the situation is critical, by imposing hosepipe bans and having the public take that on as a measure of just how critical the situation is,’ Mr Grant told RTÉ News.
‘The arrangement for hosepipe bans require us to identify the schemes and to identify the
situations where there’s critical supply, so during the week ahead I expect we’ll have quite a number of hosepipe bans extended across the country to schemes that are in trouble.’
In Kerry, where restrictions are in place, there was pandemonium last night as there was actually flooding in the middle of its drought, with popular tourist town Killarney deluged with water from a burst pipe.
In Limerick, Irish Water is drafting up new rules to ban all ‘nonessential’ use of water in the worstaffected areas. ‘The company is drafting Drought Orders to ban non-essential uses for schemes in crisis,’ Irish Water said last night.
Areas where water is cut off at night include Kilkenny, central Carlow and parts of Longford.
Meanwhile, lack of rainfall is putting major pressure on farmers across the country. Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president Pat McCormack said that the drought is impacting farmers ‘right across the board’ from dairy to tillage, and if the dry spell continues much longer, it will be ‘catastrophic’ for the entire agricultural sector this summer. Comment – Page 12 lisa.o’donnell@dailymail.ie