Augrim water is ‘undrinkable’

July 1992

A DIRTY brown-coloured waters supply coming through household taps in Aughrim and Annacurra has left the local residents with a bitter taste in their mouths.

People living in both rural areas feel it is just not good enough in this day and age to be provided with a public water supply that is undrinkable.

One resident this week told us that he had to go out and buy bottles of Ballygowan in rder to make a cup of tea for visitors because he just could not think of using the water coming from the tap.

Lawless’s Hotel in Aughrim village is now being forced to go out twice daily to fill a tank with spring water to have it for guests to drink and to use in their dining room and bar areas.

Last Sunday football teams playing at the County GAA pitch in Aughrim had to go down to the village to get water supplies when they found that players could not drink the dirty brown water coming from the taps in the grounds.

Foul-tasting brown water coming through the taps of households and business premises connected into the public supply is something that the property owners say they have had to endure not just last weekend but for the past month or more.

Angry residents feel that apart from putting up notices in the village advising people to boil water before drinking it, the County Council has done little else to cure the problem.

And the people complain bitterly that they will not get any rebate from the Council on the £40 to £50 water charges thhey are paying for such an unsatisfactory, undrinkable supply.

A spokesman for Lawless’s Hotel said that normally the water supply in Aughrim is excellent, but it is just desperate at the moment.

‘Our guests were starting to complain and now we have to go out and fill a tank twice daily from a spring for our guest to drink and to supply the dining room and bar.’

‘The water supply it that bad at the moment that whites are coming out the washing machine discoloured,’ he said.

This week, Wicklow County Council which has also been concerned about the deterioration in the public water supply to Aughrim and Annacurra, confirmed that it was their belief that tree felling close to the water source at Three Wells was responsible for the contamination of the supply.

Acting County Secretary Ultan McCabe said that they had requested Coillte to carry out certain works to prevent suspended solids from getting into the supply.