Running dry: Athlone area hit by water supply disruption every four days

Athlone's inadequate water system has resulted in local residents and businesses being hit by disruptions to supply every four days on average since the beginning of 2017.

A whopping 249 separate water supply cuts have occurred in the Athlone area of Westmeath in less than three years, according to details obtained by this newspaper through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

Nearly three-quarters of these supply interruptions were unplanned, with just 26% of the supply outages or water pressure restrictions in Athlone and surrounding areas occurring due to planned works.

Correspondence obtained as part of the FOI request showed Irish Water has been aware for some time that people in Athlone would be facing "regular" and "widespread" supply interruptions.

An email written by Irish Water official John Gavin in March 2018 stated that Athlone's water treatment plant "struggles at the best of times" to produce sufficient water to meet demand.

"It is almost certain that there will be regular widespread disruptions on this supply for the foreseeable future unless two things happen, production increases (not going to happen) or demand reduces," wrote Mr Gavin in the email addressed to other officials in Irish Water and Westmeath County Council.

In another email that month he said senior management figures in Irish Water were "getting extremely concerned" about the inability to "restore normal service" to customers in Athlone.

But little has changed more than a year and a half later, as people on the east side of Athlone, supplied from the Annagh Reservoir, have been affected by several night-time water shutoffs in recent weeks.

The Mayor of the Athlone Moate Municipal District, Cllr Frankie Keena, described the number of local water supply interruptions in the last three years as "frightening".

"I knew there had been regular issues but when you put the figures together like this it's frightening, and an eye-opener," he said.

"It's just not good enough for a town that is thriving, has been designated as a regional growth centre, and has some major planning applications underway."

He said developments like Athlone IT's technological university bid, and planning applications for huge housing developments in the Lissywollen and Coosan/Cornamagh areas, might be affected if an upgrade of the town's water treatment plant is not progressed as a matter of urgency.

"I would not like to see the future development of Athlone being curtailed because of a lack of supply of water," he said.

Those on the eastern side of the River Shannon have been hit hardest by the town's water woes in the last three years.

Irish Water figures for supply disruptions in the Athlone area between January 2017 and late September 2019 showed that 73% of the outages occurred on the 'Leinster' side of Athlone, including surrounding areas such as Mount Temple and Glasson.

According to the figures, there were 46 supply interruptions in the Athlone area in 2017, but this number more than doubled in 2018, to 117 disruptions.

During the first nine months of this year there were 86 interruptions to water supplies, which is almost a rate of one every three days.

The length of supply disruptions varied greatly, from just an hour or two in some cases to over a fortnight in one case, with the average supply interruption lasting for approximately 11 hours.