Council aims for high quality piped water

June 2000

WE each use 84 gallons of water a day, it is revealed at the official opening of the Dunbin Group Water Scheme which caters for 900 people in an area that includes Knockbridge.

Louth county council chairman Peter Savage says that 71% (32,000 people) of the rural population is served by 14 public schemes, 8% (3,650) by 12 group schemes and the remaining 21% (9,800) by private wells.

The public schemes supply a total of 2.25 million gallons and the group schemes 310,000 gallons. The figures equate to 84 gallons of water per-head per-day.

The aim is to serve 90% of the rural population with a high-quality piped water supply by 2010.

Cllr Savage points out the Dunbin scheme is a further enhancement of the county’s infrastructural network.

It is Louth’s largest scheme and is now being taken over by the county council whose objective is to provide a high-quality piped water supply to as many rural areas as possible, either by group or public schemes.

The quality of water is rated as ‘satisfactory’ in the Environmental Protection Agency report of 1998.

Isolated incidents of poor quality water are currently being addressed under the Rural Water Programme.

The chairman adds that the council in partnership with the National Federation of Group Schemes and representatives of the rural community are preparing a strategy plan which aims to ensure all water supply is of the highest possible standard and to provide water to any pockets without a supply.

The recent discovery of a major aquifer in the Cooley peninsula will greatly assist the extension of the pipe network into the north and western parts of the county, he believes.