Water woes continue

A DO not drink notice is entering its third week in the Kiltegan area with residents and members of the business community unsure of when their supply will return to normal.

The notice was enforced over two weeks ago with Irish Water and Wicklow County Council indicating an issue with elevated nitrate levels.

As the water is unsafe to drink or prepare food with, bottled water has been supplied to customers in the Kiltegan area.

According to Lisa Foley of the Talk of the Town public house, run by the Foley family, the notice has not caused great disruption for them and they have been used the bottled water supplied.

‘We have been getting the water provided and we collect it in the centre of Kiltegan or the guy drops us in two litre bottles. We don’t serve food so it hasn’t really troubled us,’ she said.

A similar response came from local man Philip Hanbidge who sits on the volunteer committee at The Hub coffee shop.

‘It has been business as usual for us and it hasn’t really disrupted the day to day operations. We would like to know when it will be lifted but overall there has been a good supply of bottled water.

Meanwhile in Aughrim and Annacurra in south Wicklow where there has been a boil-water notice in effect, residents are considerably less satisfied with Irish Water and Wicklow County Council.

At a meeting of Arklow Municipal District, the elected members were told by member of Aughrim Active Retirement group that they were disappointed with the level of communication on the matter, and that this had resulted in many people drinking the water as they did not know it was under a boil water notice.

Cllr Pat Kennedy said that Irish Water is ‘very good at putting spin on a good story but not so good at circulating the bad news.’

A boil water notice issued for Ballingate near Carnew on April 30 also remains in place.