Despite water alerts we’re in no danger of running dry yet
THE rest of the country might be in the grip of a drought but there’s no serious shortage of water in West Kerry where the hills, sodden by two years of rain, are retaining water like a camel’s humps.
There has hardly been a drop of rain anywhere in Ireland for the past three weeks. Valentia Weather Station recorded only 39.2mm of rain in all of June – compared to 141.5mm in the same month last year and 108mm in 2016. And so far this month Valentia has recorded not a single millimetre of rain.
It’s a great summer, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since 1976, and it’s causing Irish Water to go into meltdown, imposing water restrictions and a national ‘ hosepipe ban’ in an effort to conserve the water in reservoirs and save householders’ taps from running dry.
The same hosepipe ban applies to West Kerry and, like everybody else, we’re being warned to conserve water. But some of those who are far more knowledgeable than the gurus in Dublin about the state of West Kerry’s water supplies say we’re in no immediate danger of running short of water.
Dingle’s water supply, which is under the most pressure with the tourist season in full swing, is extracted from the Garfinny River at Caum Bowler. The water level in the river is much lower than usual but with the rain of two years still seeping out of the surrounding hills the river still has more than enough water to meet Dingle’s needs.
Ballymore’s main water supply is drawn from near Glens and it’s exceptional in being an area where the supply actually is running low. However, there’s no risk of an immediate shortage because water from Dingle can be pumped to Ballymore to supplement the local supply.
Paróiste Fionn Trá is supplied with water from bore holes that were sunk into Mount Eagle last year and there’s no fear of that well running dry. The same is true throughout West Kerry, although we’re told that people would be better off to ‘go easy’ on their water consumption just in case Met Éireann is right and we don’t see any rain worth talking of before the end of the month.
In the meantime, the exceptionally fine weather is producing an unusual sight along the coast where rocks are being turned white by the accumulated seabird droppings that would usually be washed away by rain and crashing waves ( photo above). There’s a similar, but less welcome, effect in Dingle where the late night drunks who treat the streets as a toilet are leaving a more lasting impression than usual.