Crews restoring supply to north Westmeath after Storm Bert

Uisce Éireann crews are working to restore normal operations at the Ballany Water Treatment Plant, where production capacity is a concern due to poor raw water quality following Storm Bert.

It has resulted in reservoirs reaching critical levels.

The Ballany Water Treatment Plant supplies drinking water to the communities of Fore, Collinstown, Glenidan, Hilltown, Clonnageeragh, Sallymount, Coole, Drumcree, Castlepollard, Delvin, Whitehall and surrounding areas of County Westmeath.

Water services crews were dispatched earlier and are still on site investigating the problem and aiming restore operations as quickly as possible. That depends on improvements to the raw water quality, said Uisce Éireann in a statement this evening.

Communities supplied by the plant have not been affected – reservoirs in the area are now depleting, meaning possible low water pressure and an interruption to the water supply later this evening.

Alan Farrell, water operations lead with Uisce Éireann, said: “We understand how disruptive unplanned outages are and we regret the inconvenience caused. We are working hard to restore normal supply, but it is dependent on weather conditions through the night.”

As per best practice, most homes and businesses will have on-site water storage to provide a backup source of water for sanitation purposes.

Following return of supply, it typically takes two to three hours for normal supply to fully be restored to all areas as the water refills the network, especially for those on higher ground or at the end of the network.

Vulnerable customers who have registered with Uisce Éireann receive direct communications for planned and unplanned outages lasting more than four hours.

The Uisce Éireann customer care helpline is open 24/7 on 1800 278 278 and customers can also use X @IWCare for queries.

For updates, see the Water Supply updates section of water.ie.

Uisce Éireann havw a free text service, providing real-time updates for local issues. Customers can sign up with their Eircode and mobile number at water.ie.