Just 10 people have told on water wasters

UP to 10 people have reported their neighbours for breaching the hosepipe ban.

Irish Water says it is making contact with ‘fewer’ than 10 households which it has been told have been using excessive amounts of water.

“We are now in the process of calling those households where hosepipe usage has been reported to educate customers on the importance of water conservation,” it said.

The utility warned that consumption had dropped in Dublin since the hosepipe ban took effect, falling to 578 million litres on Monday, but that demand was higher than normal and supplies remained on a knife-edge across the country.

As well as encouraging conservation, it appealed for the public to contact it at 1850 278 278 to report leaks, and urged customers to repair leaks in homes and in businesses.

It said 43 water supplies are under night-time water restrictions, and over 100 more are at risk due to high consumption. Restrictions are in place across Westmeath, Tipperary, Laois, Longford, Louth, Donegal, Limerick, Waterford, Clare, Cork , Kerry and Galway.

There is “increasing risk” to schemes at Clonakilty and Bantry, which are close to having restrictions imposed. Water restrictions took effect in east Athlone from last night, affecting 8,000 customers.

The Portlaoise water supply and the Derryguile Water Treatment Plant are also coming under pressure which would impact around 27,000 people.

“Met Eireann’s 10-day forecast predicts that there will not be any rainfall and we want the public to sustain their conservation efforts,” corporate affairs manager Kate Gannon said.

“Water levels in rivers, lakes and wells are at a level that we would usually experience coming into the autumn. Given that we are in early July, unless we conserve water, we will be facing into ongoing restrictions over the coming months.”

Meanwhile the Government’s emergency tsar has been meeting with officials from across the country and is due to meet senior officials from various Government departments today as the heatwave continues.

Sean Hogan, who coordinated the response to recent severe weather events including Storm Emma and Hurricane Ophelia, met in the Custom House with the heads of local authorities at a prearranged housing summit and has also met with fire chiefs amid a proliferation of wildfires. Mr Hogan will today meet with officials from other government agencies and various departments to assess the impact on various areas including water and homelessness.

The National Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services may be convened towards the end of the week to co-ordinate the State’s response to the weather. The committee is a step below the National Emergency Co-Ordination Group (NECG). Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has warned that the situation is likely to “get worse before it gets better”.

Separately Mr Murphy hit out at Opposition parties over what he said was their “irresponsibility” in relation to water charges when the Confidence and Supply agreement was put together.

“The main concern around it was water and water charges, which when you look at what we’re experiencing at the moment, the greatest conservation measure that we could have would have been water charges,” he said. “But because of the irresponsibility of other parties we were forced, just to have a Government in place, to remove water charges off the table.”

Mr Murphy did not respond when asked if he believed the controversial charges should be put back on the table amid the present concerns about shortages.