Risk of water outages for Mullingar area next week

Irish Water has advised of "possible" outages due to an essential works upgrade at Portloman Water Treatment Plant, between Wednesday and Saturday next, August 24 and August 27.

Those effected will be customers supplied by Portloman Water Treatment Plant in Mullingar, including:

Mullingar, Knockdrin, Killucan, Kinnegad, Milltownpass, Rochfortbridge, Tyrrellspass, Kilbeggan, Castletown Geoghegan, Moate, Ballymore, Ballynacargy, Ballinalack, Rathowen and surrounding areas.

"It is important to note that the risk of outages are low and where they may occur, will be more localised than the list of areas and the dates and times suggest," stated the water utility company.

"Crews will make every effort to minimise the disruption to impacted customers.

"Following restoration of supply, the water supply may take two-three hours to return as water refills the network."

Irish Water say 'vulnerable customers' who have registered with them will receive direct communications from Irish Water for "planned and unplanned outages lasting more than four hours".

John Gavin, regional asset operations lead with Irish Water said:

“We expect to have our clearwater tanks full, enabling the reservoirs to be replenished, as soon as possible, once the plant comes back into service to minimise any foreseen water outages for the local community.

“Irish Water understands that any outages can be inconvenient and working in partnership with our contractors, we will make every effort to minimise the disruption.

"These works are being carefully planned to reduce the risk of disruptions to water supply to customers, but there is a small chance that some areas may have temporary supply issues for a short time over the period of the notice.”

Irish Water keeps customers informed about their water and wastewater supplies across multiple platforms and encourages customers to engage with them on Twitter @IWCare and through the customer care helpline which is open 24/7 on 1800 278 278 and by setting their location on www.water.ie.

"Irish Water is responsible for the delivery of all public water and wastewater services in Ireland.

"We are committed to continuously upgrading and developing critical infrastructure to support growth in our economy, while protecting the environment and safeguarding water supplies."