Hosepipe bancomes intoeffect

IRISH WATER ISSUE NATIONAL BAN ON USE OF HOSEPIPES DURING DRY SPELL

A National Water Conservation Order, better known as a ‘ hosepipe ban’ has come into effect across Louth in line with the rest of the country.

The ban came into effect from 8am on Friday, 6 July and will continue for the est of the month, until midnight on Tuesday 31 July as a drought continues across Ireland.

The ban covers all domestic use of hosepipes for activities such as filling paddling pools or swimming pools, washing cars or watering plants,flowers or gardens.

A spokesperson for Irish Water explained: ‘Met Éireann advised that there has been little or no rain over the last 35 days, with an average soil moisture deficit of 60mm meaning even if it did rain, no water would reach our water sources for at least a week, as it will be absorbed by the ground, and predictions show no significant rainfall is likely for at least a further week, meaning deepening drought conditions.’

‘High levels of sunlight means significant evaporation levels on water sources.’

‘ The average soil moisture deficit is currently 60mm nationally which means even if it did rain, no water would reach our water sources as it would be absorbed by the ground.’

He explained that the continuation of these drought conditions nationally is putting pressure on water sources as rivers, lakes and groundwater levels drop.

‘Irish Water’s top priority during the current dry period is to protect our water supply for use in homes and businesses in the coming weeks and months. As demand continues to outstrip supply and the warm weather looks set to continue.’

The Conservation Order (hosepipe ban) does not apply to private wells or private group water schemes. It also does not apply to businesses or commercial premsies, i.e car washes etc.

Meanwhile, Louth Coutny Council have issued updates on local water supply issues.

A spokesman explained that Dundalk is supplied from Lough Muckno through the Cavan Hill Water Treatment Plant. ‘Levels at Lough Muckno are controlled via a gate system. The gates were raised to full height last February, resulting in the impoundment of the maximum amount of water. This has left us in a reasonable condition for the current dry spell.’

The spokesman added that it is expected the Dundalk supply can sustain at least 4-5 weeks more dry weather, before meaningful conservation measures may be required.

‘However, given the long range forecast is for more dry weather, it is important that the public try to conserve water as much as possible. Over the last ten days there were specific supply issues ina number of areas.

A mechanical issue occurred on the Cooley supply at the beginning of last week, which caused reservoir levels to fall significantly.

‘ The pump was repaired and put back into service. This outage, coupled with strong demand in the area, caused water levels in the Rath reservoir to fall significantly. In order to ensure the level recovered quickly, to guarantee uninterrupted day-time supply in the area; a section of the Cooley network was isolated from 11pm to 7am overnight. This has had the desired effect and reservoir levels returned to 75%.

The spokesman confirmed that on the same day, Tuesday last, water from the Carlingford supply was directed to Cooley to supplement water storage there and to prevent a daytime outage.’ ‘ This resulted in a sharp fall in the Carlingford Reservoir level. This level is now recovering, it is currently at 40% and is expected to rise over the course of the today.’

‘We will be monitoring supplies continuously over the coming weeks to try and maximise water availability.’