10 years on and Irish Water is still losing 41% of treated water

AS Ireland experiences record rainfall throughout the country in the wake of Storm Ciarán, Uisce Éireann (Irish Water) has admitted it is losing 41% of the country’s water supplies to leaks.

Up to 697 million litres of treated water never reaches households each day despite the water company spending almost €8.9bn since 2014 to improve infrastructure.

Uisce Éireann has committed to spending €1bn over a 10-year period to reduce leakage nationally, particularly in water-stressed areas.

The State-owned company was set up in 2013, but despite receiving billions in taxpayer money, the level of leakage has not noticeably improved – in 2014, the rate of leakage also stood at 41%.

Questioned about the figures, Uisce Éireann responded by pointing to its own research which found that 53% of Irish households believe that they waste water.

A spokesman went on to say Uisce Éireann did not recognise the 2014 figure because it was based on legacy local authority statistics with data-quality gaps and mixed calculation methodologies.

According to the most recently available statistics, Ireland wastes the second highest proportion of water in Europe, placing it behind only Bulgaria, and far behind the European average of 25%.

Despite this, Uisce Éireann insists it is on track to achieve a national leakage rate of 25% by the end of 2030, with a further long-term target of getting leakage below 20%.

It comes as the smallest of the three Aran Islands, Inis Oírr, is having water shipped from the mainland three times a day because of a lack of supply.

The islanders say they are used to water being turned off between 11pm and 7am each day and have grown used to water being imported in the summer months, when the island swells with tourists, but locals are frustrated that this is still happening as late as November.

A spokesman said: ‘Uisce Éireann and Galway County Council are currently tankering water from Rossaveel to Inis Oírr due to unexpected operational difficulties at Inis Oírr Water Treatment plant.

‘Specialised maintenance works to resolve the issue at the plant are scheduled to begin next week, with the plant expected to be back in operation the following week.’