Ten per cent of Athlone's water went on one 'untracked' use

Some ten per cent of the water in Athlone was being used in one non-domestic connection which was unknown to Uisce Éireann, it has emerged.

The organisation's asset management and sustainability director Sean Laffey told a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee that one property in Athlone had been using a megalitre of water per day of water without Uisce Éireann's knowledge.

Uisce Éireann has confirmed to the Westmeath Independent that a megalitre (or million litres of water per day (MLD)) equates to approximately ten per cent of Athlone's daily water usage.

Mr Laffey told the Oireachtas committee that, in Athlone, there was “a particular non-domestic property that had a second connection, essentially through the back door, where a megalitre of water was going per day."

He explained to the committee that the gap between production and consumption is called “unaccounted for water” and that while leakage formed part of that figure, another part is untracked water that is consumed and used by domestic and non-domestic customers.

Referring to the Athlone example, he said: “It was not leakage, but it changed the complexion of the leakage calculations in Athlone. We found the water and it was doing good work."

In a statement to the Westmeath Independent, Uisce Éireann said: “The current distribution input for Athlone town is 10 megalitres, meaning a megalitre is approximately 10% of Athlone’s daily water usage.”

It went on to state that over the past number of years it had worked to establish the exact destination of all of the water produced and “to distinguish between network leakage, and water that is being consumed without our knowledge”.

“As part of this work, we have discovered customers who have unmetered or unsanctioned connections. In these circumstances, where we are unaware of that connection, this is erroneously believed to be leakage from our network. In Athlone, as referenced at the PAC, we discovered a number of large users of water, and the net effect of identifying these connections has contributed to a reduction in leakage levels 1.8MLD in Athlone over the past three years.”

Regarding the user reference in the Oireachtas, Uisce Éireann said it didn’t comment on individual cases.

Uisce Éireann said in recent years it introduced several leak saving measures in Athlone that resulted in massive savings of over 5.3 million litres of water per day.

This included a District Meter Area improvement programme across the town, where 107 district meters on the public water network were either installed or replaced.

Its ‘Find and Fix’ crews completed 751 new individual water connections in Athlone resulting in improved water quality and a combined water savings of over 1.6 million litres of water per day.

The works also involved replacing over 23km of aged watermains across Athlone and repairing 217 leaks, resulting in over 3 million litres of water saved per day, it added.

It pointed out that it is also progressing works to upgrade the Athlone sewer network. When completed, this project will reduce the risk of sewer flooding in Athlone and address non-compliant sewer overflows into the River Shannon.

This €116 investment, which is one of the largest of its kind in Ireland, has progressed beyond the halfway point, it added.