Remove lead pipes or risk losing supply, Irish Water warns

HOSPITALS, schools, creches and pubs have been warned they risk losing their water supply unless they replace lead pipes.

Irish Water said that where it becomes aware of an issue with a property, it has a “duty to ensure that appropriate action is taken”, which can include restricting supply until the problem is addressed.

The warning is contained in a public consultation on a new national strategy aimed at addressing breaches of lead limits across as many as 200,000 private homes, and an unknown number of public buildings including schools, hospitals and State offices and buildings.

The problem is believed to affect older properties constructed up to the 1970s, after which lead piping was no longer used for internal plumbing.

The problem occurs because the lead dissolves in water, with children most at risk.

While Irish Water has powers under the Drinking Water Regulations to restrict supply, it has not used them to date.

“Our aim is to make sure the owners of these buildings are aware of the risks associated with lead water pipes and to provide advice so that they are in a position to take the steps required to eliminate any risk to human health,” Irish Water said.

The warning will pose a ma- jor headache for the Government as it will have to source the necessary funding to replace internal plumbing in as many as “several thousand” at-risk buildings.

A national risk register is being compiled, and an audit of buildings is being undertaken.

While the Government has undertaken to provide a grant scheme for homeowners, it is not clear if this will be extended to owners of commercial buildings, such as creches and pubs.

Irish Water said it will take “at least” 10 years and up to €300m to replace pipes between the public mains and individual properties. Where the owner of a property replaces internal lead plumbing, the company will replace the pipework between the mains and the property boundary. It added the problem had been signalled by the Environmental Protection Agency for more than a decade, but was “not addressed effectively”.